Bonnie's Books

Sunday Salon ~ bookstore bounty

2012-02-19T02:19:00.057-05:00

BOOKS

After lunch last Sunday, Donna and I went to the bookstore in sight of Applebee's door. As a matter of fact, when she told me to pick a restaurant, I chose that one for its proximity to the bookstore. After all, I'm a bookie, aren't I? Bookie, bookaholic, book blogger, something like that, all of that. Anyway, I rarely walk away with nothing, and that visit was about average. Donna got five or six books, so I think I was entirely circumspect in going home with only two young adult novels.

Patience, Princess Catherine ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 2004, YA fiction (England)

Catherine of Aragon grew up expecting she would someday become the queen of England — not a dejected teenage widow. But that is exactly what happens when fragile Prince Arthur, to whom she has been betrothed since the age of three, dies only months after their wedding. Her power now obsolete, Catherine is exiled to a dank castle in a remote part of the country. She is stranded there for years with little money and no control over her own fate. The one ray of light in her lonely life is her friendship with handsome Prince Henry, her deceased husband's younger brother. A marriage to Henry could elevate Catherine from her precarious position and give her the crown that she was once promised. But will Henry take the risk of making the destitute princess his queen?

Mary, Bloody Mary ~ by Carolyn Meyer, 1999, YA fiction (England)

Mary Tudor is a beautiful young princess in a grand palace filled with servants. She is accustomed to sparkling jewels, beautiful gowns, and lavish parties. Then, suddenly, she is banished by her father, King Henry VIII, to live in a cold, lonely place without money, new clothes, or even her mother. At first it seems like a terrible mistake. Even when her father has a public and humiliating affair with a bewitching woman, Mary remains hopeful. But when he abandons her mother, marries his mistress, and has a child with her, Mary begins to lose faith. And now, dressed in rags, she is summoned back to the palace to be a serving maid to her new baby half sister. Mary Tudor, daughter of Henry VIII, is a servant in her own home. Believe it or not, it's all true.

I had checked out six books about Eleanor of Aquitaine, who married into the Plantagenet dynasty. So these Tudor princesses, one the mother of the other, moved me on down the line of English royalty into a later century or two. Although these books may be in my public library, buying them as remaindered books makes sense to me.
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STATS

Just finished: Defending Jacob ~ by William Landay, 2012, fiction (Massachusetts), 8/10

Currently reading: American Gospel: God, the Founding Fathers, and the Making of a Nation ~ by Jon Meacham, 2006, politics and religion

Up next, or actually, also currently reading: Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

Totals for 2012: 15 finished + 1 DNF (did not finish) + 9 reviews

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LIFE

Three years ago today, I had quadruple bypass surgery. Talk about life-changing! I was missing from the blogging scene for weeks, with only two possts between mid-December and mid-March. I returned with a post I called "Ya gotta have heart." Then no more posts for a couple of months. Since I "started over," I consider this my new birthday. That means I'm three years old today!

I actually had a first birthday party, which I dubbed my rebirthday, inviting my post-surgery support group to party with me. We played games — well, only the pin-the-tail game shown here, which had special rules for the elderly, meaning (in this case) anyone over ten. And for you youngsters who don't know, the ancient technology in this photo is called a record player — it plays vinyl records, which I still have in two heavy boxes. The very first song on the first album picked by one of my friends that day was Carole King's "You've Got a Friend" from her Tapestry album — "Ain't it good to know that you've got a friend?" How appropriate was that?

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, is very proud of her artwork. Good job, Raegan!

Visit the Sunday Salon's Facebook page for links to more posts.

Dead ~ at the beginning

2012-02-18T19:55:00.001-05:00

Ninety Minutes in Heaven: A True Story of Death and Life ~ by Don Piper, 2004, memoir

I died on January 18, 1989.

Paramedics reached the scene of the accident within minutes. They found no pulse and declared me dead. They covered me with a tarp so that onlookers wouldn't stare at me while they attended to the injuries of the others. I was completely unaware of the paramedics or anyone else around me.

While I was in heaven, a Baptist preacher came on the accident scene. Even though he knew I was dead, he rushed to my lifeless body and prayed for me. Despite the scoffing of the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), he refused to stop praying.

At least ninety minutes after the EMTs pronounced me dead, God answered that man's prayers.

I returned to earth.

This is my story.

I've already started reading this book -- today -- almost as soon as I left the library with it. I'll probably have it finished before my library loot is posted on Wednesday.

If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Katy at A Few More Pages. (Today's list.)

Browse there to find interesting books for your own reading list. And don’t forget that Katy and all the contributors to this meme (including me) love comments.

Quote from Plato

2012-02-16T00:21:00.000-05:00

"The wise* talk because they have something to say;

fools, because they have to say something."

— Plato

* "Wise men" is the way it was translated from the original Greek, but I want to include women among those who are wise and foolish.

Thinking cap ~ a new feature

2012-02-15T02:45:00.019-05:00

Let's do something a little different today. But first, don your thinking cap and get ready. Yes, thinking. That's today's game plan. Do we need a little practice before we get into the heavy stuff? Okay, I won't make this hard since it's your first day on this particular playing field. Ready? Time to use your noggin.

Which is correct? (Or better, which makes more sense to you?)

One is half of two.

-or-

Two are halves of one.

The conversation is HERE.

To access all my "thinking cap" posts, click HERE.

Library Loot ~ February 15-21

2012-02-15T02:15:00.028-05:00

A Long, Long Sleep ~ by Anna Sheehan, 2011, YA fiction

It should have been a short suspended-animation sleep. But this time Rose wakes up to find her past is long gone — and her future full of peril. Rosalinda Fitzroy has been asleep for sixty-two years when she is woken by a kiss. Locked away in the chemically induced slumber of a stasis tube in a forgotten subbasement, sixteen-year-old Rose slept straight through the Dark Times that killed millions and utterly changed the world she knew. Now, her parents and her first love are long gone, and Rose — hailed upon her awakening as the long-lost heir to an interplanetary empire — is thrust alone into a future in which she is viewed as either a freak or a threat. Desperate to put the past behind her and adapt to her new world, Rose finds herself drawn to the boy who kissed her awake, hoping that he can help her to start fresh. But when a deadly danger jeopardizes her fragile new existence, Rose must face the ghosts of her past with open eyes — or be left without any future at all.

Alyce @ At Home with Books is giving away a copy of this book, which sounded to interesting that I went ahead and reserved it at the library. Even if I win it, I can go ahead and start reading now.

Defending Jacob ~ by William Landay, 2012, fiction (Massachusetts)

Andy Barber has been an assistant district attorney in his suburban Massachusetts county for more than twenty years. He is respected in his community, tenacious in the courtroom, and happy at home with his wife, Laurie, and son, Jacob. But when a shocking crime shatters their New England town, Andy is blindsided by what happens next: His fourteen-year-old son is charged with the murder of a fellow student. Every parental instinct Andy has rallies to protect his boy. Jacob insists that he is innocent, and Andy believes him. Andy must. He’s his father. But as damning facts and shocking revelations surface, as a marriage threatens to crumble and the trial intensifies, as the crisis reveals how little a father knows about his son, Andy will face a trial of his own — between loyalty and justice, between truth and allegation, between a past he’s tried to bury and a future he cannot conceive. Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis — a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control.

Sheila @ Book Journey listed ten books she had heard were "the best of February." Defending Jacob was fifth on the list, but one she herself was considering. After clicking her link and reading about it, I agreed and reserved it at the library. She said,

"I have read none of these. Have you? Out of the list two interest me… maybe three. Defending Jacob sounds pretty good..."

Ninth Ward ~ by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 2010, YA fiction (Louisiana), 9/10

I rarely re-read books, and this is one I read less than a year ago -- in May. So why this book, and why now? Because I'm reading it during February as the book chosen for the online African American Read-In. To read a summary of the book and learn more about the read-in, click here.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. Claire has the Mister Linky this week, if you'd like to share the loot you brought home. You may submit your link any time during the week.

Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T02:14:00.020-05:00

You should read The True Hero of Valentines Day by Ben Bishop.

Since I sent out several Valentine cards this year, I would have included one for Charlie Brown, if I'd known his mailing address. Do you want me to write a letter to you? Do I have your address? Email it to me at emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com. For now, here's my valentine to you:

Can you find joy in this valentine? How about hug? And love? I found a dozen words (two go together). And one more thing:

Charlie Brown, wherever you are, this one's for you!

Sunday Salon ~ book pairs

2012-02-12T02:12:00.008-05:00

What do these pairs of books have in common?

Moby Dick by Herman Melville ~ Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

The story of Jacob in the Bible ~ The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

King Lear by Shakespeare ~ A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley

Macbeth by William Shakespeare ~ Lady Macbeth by Susan Frasier King

The Odyssey by Homer ~ The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood

The Iliad by Homer ~ The Firebrand by Marion Zimmer Bradley

Le Morte d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory ~ The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley

The answer: "HIS" are on the left, and "HERS" are on the right.

Melville gives us Ahab's story about the hunt for Moby-Dick, and Naslund presents his wife's point of view.
The Bible tells us about Jacob and his sons, while Diamant gives us the perspective of Dinah, Jacob's only daughter.
Shakespeare tells us what King Lear and his three daughters said and did, but Smiley's 20th-century characters show us possible reasons for what the three daughters did.
While Shakespeare focuses on Macbeth, King's focus is on his wife, the last female descendant of Scotland’s royal line.
Homer gives us the story of Odysseus, who finally makes it home to Penelope and promptly kills her suitors and twelve of her maids. Atwood lets Penelope and her twelve hanged maids tell the tale as a 21st-century retrospective by the ghost of Penelope.
Homer tells us the story of the Trojan Wars, with all the "heroes" fighting. Bradley shows us how it was lived by Cassandra, one of the many daughters of King Priamus of Troy. Cassandra was a psychic and unmarried, thus "making" her unpopular with the men.
The legend of King Arthur recounts the battles of the knights of the Round Table, while Bradley's version is told from the perspective of powerful women characters like Morgaine, more commonly known as Morgan Le Fay, and Gwenhwyfar, a Welsh spelling of Guinevere.

So the answer to my question is that the second of each pair of stories gives us the women's viewpoint. And the stories change greatly when viewed through the eyes and experiences of women. His and hers stories. Do you know any other pairs of stories like these?
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STATS

Just finished: The House on Olive Street ~ by Robyn Carr, 1999, fiction, 9/10

Currently reading: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie, 2001, YA fiction (Washington state)

Up next: Inside Out and Back Again ~ by Thanhha Lai, 2011, children's (Alabama)

Totals for 2012: 13 finished + 1 DNF (did not finish) + 9 reviews

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More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

The House on Olive Street ~ by Robyn Carr

2012-02-11T21:00:00.003-05:00

The House on Olive Street ~ by Robyn Carr, 1999, fiction, 9/10

I borrowed this book from my friend Jane, and it was a good one. Five women, all published writers, are in a writers group, even though their fields are vastly different. Four of the women — bestselling author, academic, romance writer, mystery writer — spend a summer sorting through the personal effects of their other friend, who died suddenly. For each one, it's an escape from something in their own lives. One is hiding domestic violence; another is hiding her past. One is afraid to admit she is tired of being alone; another has a large family "using" her without ever "helping" her with chores, even though she's working full-time as well as being a wife and mother. On top of all that, they learn things about their deceased friend they never knew. And for all of them, life changes that summer.

Highly recommended and rated 9/10, an excellent book.

Beginning ~ with a big head

2012-02-10T02:10:00.016-05:00

I was born with water on the brain.

Okay, so that's not exactly true. I was actually born with too much cerebral spinal fluid inside my skull. But cerebral spinal fluid is just the doctors' fancy way of saying brain grease. And brain grease works inside the lobes like car grease works inside an engine. It keeps things running smooth and fast. But weirdo me, I was born with too much grease inside my skill, and it got all thick and muddy and disgusting, and it only mucked up the works. My thinking and breathing and living engine slowed down and flooded.

That's the beginning of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie, 2001, YA fiction. On page 3, the narrator tells us in words what my googled photo above shows — an enlarged head.

And other kids just called me Globe. The bullies would pick me up, spin me in circles, put their finger down on my skull, and say, "I want to go there."

I hate bullying, and I want to know what happens to this child.

If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning. Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.

Ninth Ward

2012-02-09T14:09:00.002-05:00

The results are in.
A book has been chosen for the online African American Read-In, and it is...

Ninth Ward ~ by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 2010, YA fiction (Louisiana), 9/10

Even though I read this book just a few months ago (in May 2011) and rated it 9 of 10, I never did get around to writing a book review. I plan to re-read it in time for the discussion beginning February 20 with Vasilly (1330v), Doret (The Happy Nappy Bookseller), and Edi (Crazy Quilt). And this time I'll be sure to post a review. Will you join me?

Summary of the book: Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane — Katrina — fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Eleanor of Aquitaine ~ by David Hilliam

2012-02-09T13:25:00.000-05:00

Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Richest Queen in Medieval Europe ~ by David Hilliam, 2005, YA biography, 7/10

This is the first of the six library books on Eleanor that I've completed, mostly because it was tall and thin, looked like a quick read (it was), and was awkward to place on my shelf of books from the library. It was okay, but I wasn't particularly impressed with it. I guess it gave me the facts about her life in such a way that I have a sort of overview, but I had that from reading the summaries of books about her as I was deciding which I wanted to read. I think it's interesting that the author chose three books "For Further Reading":

another one by himself on kings and queens,
a biography not in my library system, and
a biography I first discovered and want to read several years ago.

Luckily, that book — Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life by Alison Weir — is one of the six I checked out last week. Maybe it will rate higher than the 7 of 10 that I give this one.

My demise

2012-02-09T01:16:00.005-05:00

It's been four-and-a-half years since I wrote this for my Words of a Wordsmith blog, and Nancy @ Bookfoolery and Babble and I just re-read it yesterday (long story). What got to both of us was the comment left by Dewey that took our breath away. First, I'll copy the post, then I'll get to Dewey's comment.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Earlier today, I posted this comment on Colleen's Loose Leaf Notes blog, in response to what she had written about death.

Colleen, I think we all "want to KNOW what happens next." When I was 14, I wrote a poem for a neighbor who was worried about death (sorry, I don't know where that notebook is, so I can't share the poem with you). Because of that woman, who is still alive today, I have thought carefully about death for over half a century. One thing I have noticed is that older people don't seem to fear death as much as younger people. Of course, there are exceptions, but I have reached a point that I am ready to discover whatever that adventure is that takes me beyond this that we know. I doubt if any of our religions have it figured out, but it does seem likely to me that there is something more. And this is my thinking:

(1) Things we need for life (like air, food, shelter, warm sunshine) are available for us in this life.
(2) That sounds like something GOOD to me.
(3) Why would that change when we make the next transition?
(4) Therefore, whatever we need after death will be available for us then.
(5) When the elderly die, they are usually less physically able than when they were young and virile ... and some are diseased or injured or in great pain.
(6) When an injured or very sick person dies, people often say, "At least he isn't suffering any more." (And most of us would even put an animal out of its misery.)
(7) Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I have heard people say, "Now she is able to walk again ... and even dance!" Or, "Now he is able to use his legs again!"
(8) Therefore, death is not a bad thing, but could be seen as something good ... like moving on to something better.

Okay, this is kind of unorthodox, but it's my thinking at this point in my life. And I don't dread what's beyond our present KNOWING. I'm not rushing toward it, since I want to experience all I can HERE before moving on, but I do look forward to it as a positive thing.

Curious about when you'll die? I'm not, really, but I'm posting this for the shock value. According to The Death Clock, my "personal day of death" is September 4, 2034. This seems a bit odd, especially since all three of my children are "supposed" to die in the same decade.

I have posted this because I'm curious about what others might say about death and dying. Please leave a comment, even if you are a stranger to me. This is something that affects all of us.

If you want a tombstone, google "tombstone generator" and you'll get at least these two that I found. Now I guess I should REALLY decide what I would want mine to say, huh? I like the looks of the top photo, but I couldn't get as many words on it as on the bottom one.
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UPDATE (still August 21, 2007): And now I've got the cause of death all figured out, too.

UPDATE (February 1, 2008): I went back to check that Death Clock again, and now it says I'm gonna die on Monday, July 8, 2019. Hey! That's a full 15 years earlier than it told me in August! I must be going downhill fast.

UPDATE (February 9, 2012): I had bypass surgery a year later, so I really was getting worse. So I tried the Death Clock again today, just before posting this, and got — this is spooky — July 8, 2019.

The concersation begins here.

COMMENTS

August 22, 2007
Nicky @ Absolute Vanilla said:

Such an interesting post, Bonnie, I'm with you on most of it. I do believe death is the doorway to the next big adventure - or maybe its the doorway to home. I don't think it's anything we need to be afraid of - it's as natural as being born. Given that it is inevitable, I always wonder why we are socialised to fear it so - it doesn't really make sense. Funnily, enough, my post today is a sort of "short story" about encountering death.

August 25, 2007
Carole said:

Thinking of death to some may be morbid to others the body is just a shell and the soul goes on to another passage of time, is how I am looking at life here on earth. I have requested cremation, so I can have my ashes scattered in some nice place along a highway where I can fly all around the country seeing sites I will never see in this shell of a body, and be free to have no time on travel. When I think of my body decomposing in a box underground it sends chills up my spine.

I do not remember ever being afraid of death even when I was young; thinking of death is just another footstep of life, as we know it. Sometimes pain here on earth is so dramatic to our loved one that death is good. Putting down a beloved pet is good, sorrow, longing, grief, regret, pain, unhappiness are all words we use to describe life, while our society looks at suicide as being wrong. Perhaps here is where I have a problem with religious beliefs, until I walk in another person's shoes how am I to judge what another human being feels is my thoughts on the subject of suicide. Once again I think of those beautiful puffy white clouds rolling across the prairie knowing how at times those loved ones of mine are close enough to talk to and find myself speaking of them or feeling their presents here next to me and that makes me feel good.

August 26, 2007
Dewey @ The Hidden Side of a Leaf (since dismantled) said:

I'm completely comfortable with not trying to form an opinion about what happens after death. I figure if we were supposed to know, we'd know. I'm ok with waiting for the surprise (or lack thereof). I find that's not a very common viewpoint, though.

I think your point about older people not fearing death so much is related to pain and illness. I think those of us who have experienced long-term serious pain and/or illness feel that there are things worse than death. I know that if I were given the choice of being raped (for example) or having a quick bullet to the head, I surely would choose death.

February 8, 2012 (yesterday)
My online conversation with Nancy/Bookfool:

Bonnie: I did find this "Discussion about Death" on my Words from a Wordsmith blog, and one who shared her ideas about death was Dewey.

Nancy: Oh, wow. I just read your post and the comments. Dewey's comment along with the knowledge of her death . . . that just took my breath away.

Bonnie: Yeah, it does, doesn't it? Dewey died 15 months after writing that comment about death. I was struck by this line which tells me more now than it did then: "... those of us who have experienced long-term serious pain and/or illness ..." I knew her doctor told her to take a year off from teaching, but I didn't really know how sick she was — I didn't know her pain.

So let's talk about it. What do you think about death? Or about Dewey and how you remember her? Or about getting the same date years later, like this:

Library Loot ~ February 8-14

2012-02-08T02:08:00.008-05:00

Lon Po Po: A Red Riding Hood Story from China ~ by Ed Young, 1989, children's fairy tale (China)

Three sisters staying home alone are endangered by a hungry wolf who is disguised as their grandmother.

Between the time I first decide to read a book and actually have it in hand, I usually forget whose post or review got me interested in the first place. This time, I kept track. Stephanie @ Confessions of a Bookaholic recommends both this one and the one by Chris Crutcher that's next on this list.

"Ana actually brought this one home from school and we read it together. The pictures are gorgeous and it is a great way to learn about fairy tales from other countries! Definitely recommended for kids."

Deadline ~ by Chris Crutcher, 2007, YA fiction

Ben Wolf has big things planned for his senior year. Had big things planned. Now what he has is some very bad news and only one year left to make his mark on the world. How can a pint-sized, smart-ass seventeen-year-old do anything significant in the nowheresville of Trout, Idaho? First, Ben makes sure that no one else knows what is going on — not his superstar quarterback brother, Cody, not his parents, not his coach, no one. Next, he decides to become the best 127-pound football player Trout High has ever seen; to give his close-minded civics teacher a daily migraine; and to help the local drunk clean up his act. And then there's Dallas Suzuki. Amazingly perfect, fascinating Dallas Suzuki, who may or may not give Ben the time of day. Really, she's first on the list. Living with a secret isn't easy, though, and Ben's resolve begins to crumble, especially when he realizes that he isn't the only person in Trout with secrets.

Stephanie again:

"Without telling ANYONE, including his parents or younger brother, he sets out to make his Senior year unforgettable. Honestly, I'm having a hard time not tearing up just writing this paragraph. It really is an exceptional book."

This is also the only book on my roommate's blog. Donna taught mostly middle school English for twenty years, even though she hasn't caught the blogging bug.

"This is perhaps my favorite of Crutcher's young adult novels, and that is saying much since he is, in my view, one of the best young adult authors today."

Girl Meets God ~ by Lauren F. Winner, 2002, memoir

The child of a Jewish father and a lapsed Southern Baptist mother, Lauren F. Winner chose to become an Orthodox Jew. But even as she was observing Sabbath rituals and studying Jewish law, Lauren was increasingly drawn to Christianity. Courageously leaving what she loved, she eventually converted. In Girl Meets God, this appealing woman takes us through a year in her Christian life as she attempts to reconcile both sides of her religious identity. Here readers will find a new literary voice: a spiritual seeker who is both an unconventional thinker and a devoted Christian. The twists and turns of Winner’s journey make her the perfect guide to exploring true faith in today’s complicated world.

I read about one of her books on RevGalBlogPals, but it doesn't come out until the end of February. I checked the library to see which of her books I could look at in the meantime and found this one.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Marg has the Mister Linky this week.

Happy 200th birthday, Charles

2012-02-07T18:10:00.002-05:00

Dickens writing in 1858

Charles Dickens would have turned 200 today, if he weren't already dead at the age of 58. Chrisbookarama wrote a letter to him that's great fun to read.

"Happy Birthday, Mr Dickens. You look good for 200, not a day over 150. I hope you have a great day. Apparently lots of people will be celebrating for you, including the Queen. Sorry you can't be there in person."

After linking him to some of her blog reviews ("do you know what a blog is?"), she wrote my favorite part and shared this "movie (that's what we call them)" with Mr. Dickens, which I now share with you.

"I know I have tons more of your books to read. Will I be 200 before I get to read them all? I would say keep writing but, you know, being dead kinda prevents that. If you somehow manage it though, could you write a female character who is neither a mouse nor a bitch? Thanks."

Thanks, Chris. Informative as well as fun.

Among his most memorable writings, to me, are A Christmas Carol, A Tale of Two Cities, and Great Expectations. What have you read by Charles Dickens?

You may be a bookaholic ... (#14)

2012-02-07T14:07:00.005-05:00

... if your children know exactly where to find you in the stacks at your local library.

To see all my bookaholic posts, click here: You may be a bookaholic

Write It Right ~ today's spelling lesson

2012-02-07T02:07:00.020-05:00

Someone goofed. I don't want to eat shampoo, fast or slow. The bad news is that the sign has been up since at least Sunday (when I took the photograph), maybe even Saturday — and today is Tuesday. Has nobody else noticed? Or do they just not care?

If you can find the mistake in this sign near my house (surely every reader of this blog can!), please say "found it" in the comments.

Year of the Dragon stamps

2012-02-06T02:06:00.058-05:00

I wanted special stamps for sending out my Month of Letters during February. Having heard the Post Office had Year of the Dragon stamps, I bought two pages (twelve to a page) of these ornate dragons, rather than use stamps I already had. Then Jan's card-letter arrived — the first I have received — and, lo and behold, it has the dragon stamp on it!

How do you like the finesse with which I took this photo? It shows Jan's first name (but not her last name or address or town), my last name (without address), and the point of the photo — the dragon stamp in the corner.

This is a close-up of the dragon stamp. Except for the colors, it is strikingly similar to the dragon I posted on the first day of the Chinese New Year, found here. From the back of the sheet of stamps:

Millions of people around the world will celebrate the Year of the Dragon beginning January 23, 2912. The dragon, a respected creature traditionally considered magical or divine, is the fifth of twelve animals associated with the Chinese lunar calendar. People born in the Year of the Dragon are said to be flamboyant and powerful innovators. The Year of the Dragon ends on February 9, 2013.

I was born in the Year of the Dragon, in 1940. And now, some inspiration for all of us who are writing letters this month.

This 1921 handwritten letter was from Virginia Woolf to Katherine Mansfield. She said, “It seems to me very important that women should learn to write.”

Sunday Salon ~ what does the moon smell like?

2012-02-05T02:05:00.086-05:00

Raegan: "The moon smells good."
Her mom: "What does it smell like?"
Raegan: "Ladybugs."

Her mom (my granddaughter) wrote: "I love the random way Raegan thinks!" Two-year-old Raegan has quite a lively and imaginative mind, that's for sure!

For the writers among us

ABCs of how an agent works by Marie, the blogger-wife of a writer who just signed a contract.

Write It Right

I can see it now, a headline that says: COMMA SAVES GRANDPA'S LIFE

Books

The House on Olive Street ~ by Robyn Carr, 1999, fiction

The loss of their close friend draws four women together. And a summer spent sorting through personal effects offers the perfect challenge — and the perfect escape.
Sable — her bestselling novels have made her a star, but the woman who has everything, in fact, has nothing but a past she is desperate to hide.
Elly — the intellectual who has hidden herself within the walls of academia, afraid to admit she is tired of being alone.
Barbara Ann — the talent behind twenty-six romance novels wakes up one day to discover she's lost control of her career, her sanity and her family.
Beth — her popular mysteries have become the only way she can fight against the secret tyranny of an abusive husband.
In the house on Olive Street, away from their troubles, the four women discover something marvelous: themselves. And along the way they realize a dream. For, in telling the story of a remarkable woman, their own lives begin to change.

I came back from housesitting with another borrowed book — this one. Have you read it?

Then Saturday, my friend Donna and I went out to eat, but first we stopped by Books-A-Million to pick up a couple of books she ordered. Of course, I picked up a book from the sale table, adding to my overflowing TBR stacks.

Lady Macbeth ~ by Susan Frasier King, 2008, fiction (Scotland)

Married, pregnant, then quickly widowed, Gruadh, the last female descendent of Scotland's most royal line, is forced to wed her husband's murderer, the warlord Macbeth. Determined to protect her interests and those of her infant son, she vows to preserve her family's legacy at any cost.

The novel starts with two things I love -- a map and a genealogy. It's a map of Celtic Scotland, and the Genealogy of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. I had never heard of this one, but it looks interesting and will represent Scotland in my Book Around the World challenge.

Letter writing challenge

I know you are anxious to hear from me, but remember: "There's no mail delivery on Sunday." If you haven't already sent me your address, email me and I'll add you to my mailing list: emerging DOT paradigm AT yahoo DOT com. For the record, yesterday I received my first letter from a participant in the February Month of Letters — from Jan @ Yearning for God. Thanks, Jan!

More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

Saturday Snapshot ~ Jane Yelliott and her art

2012-02-04T03:45:00.002-05:00

Here's my friend Jane Yelliott at the In-Town Gallery's "First Friday" event last night. She's standing beside Koi (left) and Water Lilies (right), two of her ceramic tiles hanging in the Gallery. Here are close-ups of those two tiles (click to enlarge the images).

Koi (ceramic tile)

Water Lilies (ceramic tile)

Jane is quoted online:

“Having the curiosity of a cat led me to explore many different mediums by studying with the very best of instructors. Always with a passion for painting the living breathing human form, I delight in portraying the innocence of children as well as nudes. Animals, particularly cats, are great subject matter. I have enjoyed creating cloisonné jewelry and working with silver and gold, but at present I am concentrating on pastels, watercolor, and ceramic glazing on porcelain tiles. Variety is the spice of life!”

World Book Night ~ April 23, 2012

2012-02-04T02:04:00.026-05:00

The folks who came up with the idea of World Book Night have a goal of getting 50,000 people to go out to places in their communities on the evening of Monday, April 23, 2012, to give a free paperback book to 20 strangers or (if they know them) people who aren’t frequent readers. They have in mind places like a coffee shop or hospital, church or community center, an after-work party or train home, shopping mall or local school. The paperbacks will be specially-produced, not-for-resale World Book Night U.S. editions, and there are 30 titles to choose from (I've shown them below). That means a million free books in all. A million! Free!

You can register to be a giver by choosing three books (of the 30 show below) and telling them why you’d like to participate and where you are thinking of going to give out your books. June at Caribousmom has already been chosen as a book giver, but it is not too late. The deadline has been extended to Monday, Feb. 6 at midnight, and the more the merrier. Let's do it! I have read more than half of these books, but as of today, my top choice is Zeitoun (click the link to read my review).

A world tour in five minutes

2012-02-03T17:53:00.006-05:00

I've found a new blog to add to my sidebar of "Blogs I read." Here's something Marie @ Every Day Is a Miracle posted in January:

Kien Lam quit his job, packed his bag and camera, and traveled to 17 countries in 343 days. This is the amazing result. The original music was composed by his brother, William. Stunning!

Beginning patiently ~ or not

2012-02-03T02:03:00.007-05:00

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver ~ by E. L. Konigsburg, 1973, children's fiction

"During her lifetime Eleanor of Aquitaine had not been a patient woman. While she had lived, she had learned to bide her time, but biding one's time is a very different thing from patience. After she had died, and before she had arrived in Heaven, it had been necessary for Eleanor to learn some patience. Heaven wouldn't allow her Up until she had. But there were times, like today, when she wasn'ts sure whether she had really learned any patience at all or whether she had simply become too tired to be quarelsome."

You may remember that all my books from the library this week were about Eleanor of Aquitaine. I had this one at the top of my library loot list for a reason — because it's by an excellent author. This first paragraph does indeed set the stage and invite me into the story, which begins (obviously) after the main character has died. Very unusual, huh? I look forward to getting into this one.

If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Katy at A Few More Pages. (Today's list.)

Browse there to find interesting books for your own reading list. And don’t forget that Katy and all the contributors to this meme (including me) love comments.

BTT (#18) ~ found books

2012-02-02T12:00:00.001-05:00

Booking Through Thursday has a guest questioner, so it is heidenkind who asks:

"Have you ever read a random book left in a waiting room or on a park bench, etc., and did you like it?"

I can't remember reading a book I've run across like that, but I have been known to LEAVE a book — on purpose. Have you ever heard of BookCrossing? Back in 2003, I joined that group of people, who "release" books to other readers, by leaving my first book at Panera in Hixson (a suburb of Chattanooga). Six years later, I was a blogger and wrote about it here. That first book was Three Women by Marge Piercy, published in 1999. Have you read it?

A letter a day

2012-02-01T14:01:00.022-05:00

Once again, I'm housesitting and feeding Babe, the cat. To get ready for this February Month of Letters, I stopped last night — on my way back here from a birthday dinner for a friend — and stocked up on colorful Hallmark stationery, a package of designer paper, and a package of note cards. I also got a note pad to list names and addresses of recipients and a green pen, which should be perfect for St. Patrick's Day as well. My mailing list so far includes:

Jan ~ in Texas
Madge ~ in California
Helen ~ in California
Maggie ~ in Ohio
Paula ~ in Tennessee
Jenn ~ in Arizona
Martha ~ in Virginia
Ginny ~ in Florida

Why isn't your name on the list? If you want a letter from me, send your postal address to emerging(DOT)paradigm(AT)yahoo(DOT)com and I'll add you to the list. Hey, I'll even send it internationally.

I'll leave you with the two squirrels on the deck where I'm housesitting — click to enlarge the photos and look carefully — there's one at each end of the feeder on the railing. The birds were using that round (squirrel-proof?) feeder hanging down from the eaves.

Eleanor of Aquitaine ~ Library Loot ~ Feb. 1-7

2012-02-01T02:01:00.016-05:00

I took one of those online tests called the Which Historical Queen Are You test (click that link, if you want to take it). Here's my result:

You are: Eleanor of Aquitaine, Queen of England and of France, 1122-1204.

Wow, that's pretty good, since Eleanor was one of the most influential figures of the 12th century. Married at age fifteen to Louis VII of France, she had two daughters by him, but no sons. She eventually managed to have that marriage annulled in order to marry Henry of Anjou, who would become King Henry II of England. She bore Henry eight children, two of them future kings of England (Richard the Lionhearted and John of Magna Carta fame) and two of them future queens (Eleanor of Castile and Joan of Sicily). Throughout her life, she maintained control over her extensive lands in Southern France, and cleverly managed the lives of her children and grandchildren.

Okay, now I've gotta read about this queen I'm so much like. Today's library loot is all Eleanor, though I'll probably only read two or three, after perusing things like book beginnings, chapter headings (if any), and the table of contents of the biographies. Donna tells me this first one is excellent, and I like E. L. Konigsburg's The View from Saturday.

A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver ~ by E. L. Konigsburg, 1973, YA fiction

Eleanor of Aquitaine is in Heaven, waiting to learn whether or not her second husband, King Henry II of England, will be able to join her. Henry had died even before Eleanor, but he still had not won admission into Heaven. Waiting with Eleanor are Henry's mother, Empress Matilda, and William the Marshal. A chance encounter with Abbot Suger, an old friend of Eleanor's from the time of her first marriage, starts the four of them remembering times past. Each person in turn tells a part of Eleanor's life, vividly illustrating the excitement of living in twelfth-century England and France, and especially the excitement of being Eleanor. Wife of two kings, mother of two others, Richard the Lion Heart and John, she set the tone of court life for her times, sponsored poets and musicians, established the legend of King Arthur as a romantic feature of English literature, set the Rules of Courtly Love, and helped rule a kingdom that spanned from Scotland to the Pyrenees. And she did all this in a time when a king could keep his queen a prisoner — and did! This book is a novel, fiction, fantasy even. But everything in it about Eleanor and her family and her times is true.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: A Life ~ by Alison Weir, 2000, biography

Eleanor of Aquitaine was a remarkable woman. She was an important factor in the reign of four kings, lived to the ripe old age of 82, bore ten children, and outlived all but two of them. Her sons were kings of England and her daughters queens of Castile and Sicily, while her later descendants included a Holy Roman emperor and kings of France and Spain, as well as a couple of saints. In an age of men, she was indeed a powerful woman.

Captive Queen: A Novel of Eleanor of Aquitaine ~ by Alison Weir, 2010, fiction

Nearing her thirtieth birthday, Eleanor has spent the past dozen frustrating years as consort to the pious King Louis VII of France. For all its political advantages, the marriage has brought Eleanor only increasing unhappiness — and daughters instead of the hoped-for male heir. But when the young and dynamic Henry of Anjou arrives at the French court, Eleanor sees a way out of her discontent. For even as their eyes meet for the first time, the seductive Eleanor and the virile Henry know that theirs is a passion that could ignite the world. Returning to her duchy of Aquitaine after the annulment of her marriage to Louis, Eleanor immediately sends for Henry, the future King of England, to come and marry her. The union of this royal couple will create a vast empire that stretches from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees, and marks the beginning of the celebrated Plantagenet dynasty.

Duchess of Aquitaine: A Novel of Eleanor ~ by Margaret Ball, 2006, fiction

Upon her beloved father's sudden death in 1137, Eleanor finds herself the Duchess of Aquitaine at fifteen. With no time to mourn and less to finish growing up, Eleanor realizes she must act fast: if word of the duke's death should spread, feudal lords from across France will scramble to her doorstep, clawing at each other to win Aquitaine and Poitou by marrying her. None of her advisors can think what to do, but, with wisdom belying her youth, Eleanor herself devises an ingenious plan to stave off future suitors by marrying none other than King Louis himself. For only as queen can she unify and ultimately save France from itself.

Eleanor of Aquitaine: The Richest Queen in Medieval Europe ~ by David Hilliam, 2005, YA biography

Explores the life of this medieval queen, including her political abilities, and the contribution she made to twelfth-century France and Great Britain.

Eleanor of Aquitaine and the Four Kings ~ by Amy Kelly, 1950, biography

Eleanor's biography has the dramatic interest of a novel. She was at the very center of the rich culture and clashing politics of the twelfth century. Richest marriage prize of the Middle Ages, she was Queen of France. as the wife of Louis VII, and went with him on the exciting and disastrous Second Crusade. Divorced from Louis, she married Henry Plantagenet, who became Henry II of England. Her resources and resourcefulness helped Henry win his throne, she was involved in the conflict over Thomas Becket, and, after Henry's death, she handled the affairs of the Angevin empire with a sagacity that brought her the trust and confidence of popes and kings and emperors. After Henry's death, her sons, Richard Coeur-de-Lion and John "Lackland" (of Magna Charta fame), fiercely pursued the feud up to and even beyond the end of the century. But the dynastic struggle of the period was accompanied by other stirrings: the intellectual revolt, the struggle between church and state, the secularization of literature and other arts, the rise of the distinctive urban culture of the great cities. Eleanor knew every city from London and Paris to Byzantium, Jerusalem, and Rome. This book reveals in Eleanor a greatness of vision, an intelligence, and a political sagacity that have been missed by those who have dwelt on her caprice and frivolity.

Look what else I've found

The tomb of Eleanor and Henry II in Fontevraud Abbey in Anjou, France, shows her reading a book. I think she would have been a book blogger, if she lived in this day and age. Yes, even if she ruled England or the whole of Europe.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Claire has the Mister Linky this week.

You may be a bookaholic ... (#13)

2012-01-31T01:31:00.007-05:00

... if, at yard sales, you visit the book table first.

To see all my bookaholic posts, click here: You may be a bookaholic

A month of letters

2012-01-30T16:00:00.001-05:00

Reading Jan's blog last week, I found a challenge to write real letters, as in snail mail. A month's worth of letters, that is, not counting Sundays and holidays, when the Post Office is closed:

Last September, I took a month off from the internet. During my vacation, I told people that they could correspond with me by paper letter. Some people did. Some people still are. Every letter delights me.

When I write back, I find that I slow down and write differently than I do with an email. Email is all about the now. Letters are different, because whatever I write needs to be something that will be relevant a week later to the person to whom I am writing. In some ways it forces me to think about time more because postal mail is slower. “By the time you get this…” It is relaxing. It is intimate. It is both lasting and ephemeral.

How so? I find that I will often read the letters that I receive twice. Once when I get them and again as I write back. So, that makes it more lasting. It is more ephemeral because I don’t have copies of the letters that I write and I am the only one who has copies of the letters that my correspondents write. So, more ephemeral.

When was the last time you got a letter in the mail? December sees a lot of mail, and you remember that sense of delight when the first card arrives. You can have that more often.

I have a simple challenge for you.

1. In the month of February, mail at least one item through the post every day it runs. Write a postcard, a letter, send a picture, or a cutting from a newspaper, or a fabric swatch.

2, Write back to everyone who writes to you. This can count as one of your mailed items.

All you are committing to is to mail 24 items. Why 24? There are four Sundays and one US holiday. In fact, you might send more than 24 items. You might develop a correspondence that extends beyond the month. You might enjoy going to the mail box again.

Feeling intimidated? It’s fewer words than NaNoWriMo, and I know how many of you do that. Join me in The Month of Letters Challenge.

Sincerely yours,
Mary Robinette Kowal

If I do this, what will I write? Who will I send it to? I put together this much of a post, then stopped. For four days, I forgot about the challenge altogether. Then today on Facebook, my friend Madge, who found this through another blogger, said she was going to do it. Having never met face to face, though we've been book buddies since 1996, Madge and I exchanged addresses and I'm committed.

If you want a letter from me, send your snail mail address to me at emerging(DOT)paradigm(AT)yahoo(DOT)com. I'll try to write to the first 24 on my list. I guess I should start with Jan, who wrote the post which alerted me to the challenge, then Madge, who convinced me to do it. Who else?

Blogiversary

2012-01-30T01:30:00.108-05:00

I've been blogging for five years now:

2007 ... My first post was about Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake.
2008 ... I missed my "end of January" blogiversary by a day.
2009 ... I completely missed the day because I was sick enough to require open-heart surgery.
2010 ... I nailed the day with a blogiversary post.
2011 ... I went to church and remembered to post about my blogiversary.
2012 ... I now know how to schedule this to post at "1:30 AM" to match the 1-30 date.

Is this progress? I think so. Now let's look ahead at what's best, according to you, the readers of this blog. Which (if any) of these interest you? By clicking on the links, you can look over the various features I've tried, listed in alphabetical order.

Leave a comment with the NUMBER of the ones you like, unless you prefer to write it out. You may put the numbers in order, listing the features you like best before the less liked ones. What would you like more of? For you dedicated readers, tell me what you like about a feature — or about the blog in general.

Sunday Salon ~ chickens and books

2012-01-29T01:29:00.242-05:00

First, the books

I have a stack of library books still to read, but I may set them aside to read one of the books Donna has put in my hands. Yesterday, she handed me Room by Emma Donoghue (2010), which I could call library loot, since I picked it up for her the other day when I was at the library getting my own books.

To five-year-old-Jack, Room is the world. It's where he was born, it's where he and his Ma eat and sleep and play and learn. At night, his Ma shuts him safely in the wardrobe, where he is meant to be asleep when Old Nick visits. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it's the prison where she has been held for seven years. Through her fierce love for her son, she has created a life for him in this eleven-by-eleven-foot space. But with Jack's curiosity building alongside her own desperation, she knows that Room cannot contain either much longer.

The other book is The Last Week by Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan (2006), which is the February choice for her book club. Since I'm considering joining that group, I should probably read the book, especially since I think these writers are excellent, whether writing alone or together.

Borg and Crossan discovered that many Christians are unclear on the details of events during the week leading up to Jesus's crucifixion. Using the gospel of Mark as their guide, Borg and Crossan present a day-by-day account of Jesus's final week of life. They begin their story on Palm Sunday with two triumphal entries into Jerusalem. The first entry, that of Roman governor Pontius Pilate leading Roman soldiers into the city, symbolized military strength. The second heralded a new kind of moral hero who was praised by the people as he rode in on a humble donkey. Jesus is this new moral hero, a more dangerous Jesus than the one enshrined in the church's traditional teachings. The Last Week depicts Jesus giving up his life to protest power without justice and to condemn the rich who lack concern for the poor.

Have you read either of these books? What do you think? Should I read one of these or one of the seven I still have checked out from the library?

The Book Thief ~ by Markus Zusak, 2006, YA fiction (Germany) ~ due 1-31
Gilgamesh ~ by Joan London, 2003, fiction (Australia and Armenia) ~ due 1-31
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union ~ by Michael Chabon, 2007, fiction (Alaska) ~ due 1-31
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie, 2001, YA fiction ~ due 2-6
The Discovery of Jeanne Baret ~ by Glynis Ridley, 2010, biography ~ due 2-14
The Knife of Never Letting Go ~ by Patrick Ness, 2008, YA fiction ~ due 2-18
Inside Out and Back Again ~ by Thanhha Lai, 2011, children's (Alabama) ~ due 2-20

Second, the chickens

"Why did the chicken cross the road?" Google helped me find some answers and even more humorous pictures. One web site has a Chickens Crossing lesson plan for drawing and writing sentences, along with this video of what children have come up with:

My favorite on this video is the chicken who crossed the road "to rescue his girlfriend from Colonel Sanders." Elsewhere online, I found out the chicken (or should it be chickens, plural?) crossed the road "to show the possum it could be done." Captain James T. Kirk says, "To boldly go where no chicken has gone before." A cartoon showed a hen telling a duck, "To be perfectly honest, I cross the road to get away from my husband." Here's a link to lots of answers, from people like Darwin and Moses and Martin Luther King, Jr., who is quoted by this cartoon chicken:

By the way, you do know that a chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion, right? Okay, it's a pun, but I like puns — because I like to play with words. So here's a compound pun by Richard Whately that I simply must share with you:

"Why can a man never starve in the Great Desert? Because he can eat the sand which is there. But who brought the sand which is there? Noah sent Ham, and his descendants mustered and bred."

Get it? Sand-which-is? Musterd? Bred? Oh, and maybe I should mention that Noah's sons are named Shem, Ham, and Japheth (see Genesis 6:10).

Third, another date

Jamey at the Pocket Wilderness near Montlake yesterday

Another view with Jamey taken yesterday

Earlier this week, Jamey called me from the University and came by my house on his way home from classes. We talked a bit, then went to Wendy's for lunch — I love their salads and he had a burger. I ask you, can anything be grander than taking a handsome grandson to lunch when he chose to come visit on his own?

More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

Saturday Snapshot ~ clarinet concert

2012-01-28T13:28:00.002-05:00

Last Saturday, as Kiki told you, my friend Ginny was in town from Tallahassee to take part with these other clarinet players in an all-day rehearsal and workshop at the University. I attended the excellent Clarinet Concert which followed their long day. Ginny is wearing red, on the left edge of the photo. The official photo is posted online here.

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books. To participate, post a photo taken by you (or a friend or family member). Your photo can be old or new, as long as its subject is appropriate for all eyes to see. Check out snapshots others are sharing this week.

Beginning ~ on the water

2012-01-27T22:27:00.002-05:00

Flooding in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Zeitoun ~ by Dave Eggers, 2009, history (Louisiana), 10/10

On moonless nights the men and boys of Jableh, a dusty fishing town on the coast of Syria, would gather their lanterns and set out in their quietest boats. Five or six small craft, two or three fishermen in each. A mile out, they would arrange the boats in a circle on the black sea, drop their nets, and, holding their lanterns over the water, they would approximate the moon.

The fish, sardines, would begin gathering soon after, a slow mass of silver rising from below. The fish were attracted to plankton, and the plankton were attracted to the light. They would begin to circle, a chain linked loosely, and over the next hour their numbers would grow. The black gaps between silver links would close until the fishermen could see, below, a solid mass of silver spinning.

This "book beginning" is going to segue right into a book review because I could not stop reading. I started late, but read all night. I needed sleep, but I needed to know what came next even more. So I kept turning the pages, horrified at what could — and did — happen when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in 2005.

Abdulrahman Zeitoun comes across as a good man, driven to do good things for others, doing good work, caring about his construction workers and the people who hire him to build, repair, and board up windows. And yet, I was appalled by what happened to this man. I can't really tell you what upsets me, because it would be a spoiler. But I do heartily recommend you read this book. I rate it 10 of 10, which means I couldn't put it down.

Salvage the Bones ~ by Jesmyn Ward, 2011, fiction (Mississippi), 9/10

I'm making this a double review, since the first book I finished in 2012 was also about Hurricane Katrina. This one was set in Mississippi in a pocket of rural poverty, and it is also tough to read and horrifying, but in a different way. Dogs die in both books: in Zeitoun because they were left behind when owners were forced to evacuate, in Salvage the Bones because men trained them for vicious dog fights. I was startled when someone's comment on the book's beginning was "sounds like a cute story." Cute? No, it was not even close to cute. It was an intense story that was well-written, but I didn't enjoy it at all. That does not mean it was not a good story — just that it isn't one I could possibly "enjoy." It was more gut-wrenching than enjoyable, a brutal story. These characters in Salvage the Bones were believable, but I don't think I know anyone quite like them. I rated it 9 of 10.

If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning. Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.

2012 National African American Read-In

2012-01-26T17:00:00.004-05:00

Ernest J. Gaines

February is the month for the Twenty-Third National African American Read-In, sponsored by the Black Caucus of the National Council of Teachers of English. Churches, schools, book clubs, and bookstores all over America will get together to read and discuss books by African Americans. Vasilly (1330v), Doret (TheHappyNappyBookseller), and Edi (Crazy Quilt) will host an online read-in. We are invited to vote for the one book of these six we would like the group to read. Vasilly will announce the results on Monday, January 30th. Because I've already read two of the others, I voted for Good Fortune by Noni Carter.

Fences ~ by August Wilson, 1983, play

Garbage collector Troy Maxson clashes with his son over an athletic scholarship. Set in the 1950s, it is the sixth in Wilson's ten-part Pittsburgh Cycle. Like all of the Pittsburgh plays, Fences explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes. The play won the 1987 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Good Fortune ~ by Noni Carter, 2010, YA fiction

Ayanna Bahati lives in a small African village when she is brutally kidnapped, along with her brother, and forced onto a slave ship to America. As Ayanna, renamed Anna, rises from the cotton fields to the master’s house, she finds the familial love she’s been yearning for in elderly Mary and Mary’s son Daniel—but she is also faced with more threats to her survival. Risking everything to escape the plantation, Anna manages to make it north and to freedom, eventually settling in the free black community of Hudson, Ohio, and educating herself to become a teacher.

A Lesson Before Dying ~ by Ernest J. Gaines, 1993, fiction

Set in a small Cajun community in the late 1940s, A Lesson Before Dying is a novel of one man condemned to die for a crime he did not commit and a young man who visits him in his cell. In the end, the two men forge a bond as they both come to understand the simple heroism of resisting — and defying — the expected. Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction.

Ninth Ward ~ by Jewell Parker Rhodes, 2010, children's fiction (Louisiana)

Twelve-year-old Lanesha lives in a tight-knit community in New Orleans' Ninth Ward. She doesn't have a fancy house like her uptown family or lots of friends like the other kids on her street. But what she does have is Mama Ya-Ya, her fiercely loving caretaker, wise in the ways of the world and able to predict the future. So when Mama Ya-Ya's visions show a powerful hurricane — Katrina — fast approaching, it's up to Lanesha to call upon the hope and strength Mama Ya-Ya has given her to help them both survive the storm.

Pull ~ by B. A. Binns, 2010, YA fiction (Illinois)

High school senior David Albacore is dealing with major upheaval after his father murders his mom. In the terrible aftermath, he changes his name and moves to a tough new inner-city Chicago high school with his younger sister Barney, when they and their now silent younger sister, Linda, move in with their aunt. David blames himself for not saving their mom that night; after being injured in a basketball game in which he was the star, David was given strong painkillers, which caused him to sleep through the shooting. Barney, who found their mom's body, is fragile after a hospital stay and is barely able to cope. With their mother gone and their father in jail, David tries to take care of his sisters as they grieve and adjust to a different kind of life. When he's forced to join the basketball team or be expelled after getting in too many fights, it cuts into his after-school construction job that he takes to help his aunt support his family.

Topdog/Underdog ~ by Suzan-Lori Parks, 2001, play

A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity is Suzan-Lori Parks latest riff on the way we are defined by history. The play tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.

Which of these sounds most interesting to you?

Symmetry

2012-01-26T14:17:00.000-05:00

Read more about symmetry at Miss Rumphius Effect, where Tricia Stohr-Hunt posted a link to Seeing Symmetry. Loreen Leedy has a book by that title coming out this spring.

I found this photo on Facebook, under Classical Music Humor.

Library Loot ~ January 25-31

2012-01-25T01:25:00.004-05:00

Inside Out and Back Again ~ by Thanhha Lai, 2011, children's (Alabama)

"No one would believe me but at times I would choose wartime in Saigon over peacetime in Alabama." For all the ten years of her life, Hà has only known Saigon: the thrills of its markets, the joy of its traditions, the warmth of her friends close by, and the beauty of her very own papaya tree. But now the Vietnam War has reached her home. Hà and her family are forced to flee as Saigon falls, and they board a ship headed toward hope. In America, Hà discovers the foreign world of Alabama: the coldness of its strangers, the dullness of its food, the strange shape of its landscape, and the strength of her very own family. This is the moving story of one girl's year of change, dreams, grief, and healing as she journeys from one country to another, one life to the next. Winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

The Knife of Never Letting Go ~ by Patrick Ness, 2008, YA fiction

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with only his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn't she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd's gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. Marg has the Mister Linky this week, if you'd like to share the loot you brought home. You may submit your link any time during the week.

Chinese New Year, continued

2012-01-24T00:01:00.026-05:00

After Jane and Donna and I ate Chinese food for the new year, Jane and I went to last night's meeting of the Joseph Campbell Roundtable (Donna had another meeting). We all three wore Chinese red.

For the arrival of the year of the Water Dragon in the Chinese zodiac, Chris Campbell gave a presentation on the I Ching, or Book of Changes and The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, two Chinese classics. He recommends the ones by Richard Wilhelm.

Chris was explaining the I Ching on the flipchart. I Ching means "book of changes." On the wall to the right is his "cursive" drawing of the Year of the Dragon, where we can almost see the dragon flying through the air. Double click on the photo to enlarge it, so you can see the dragon's head where the line starts — in other words, starting at the darkest end of that ribbon of black ink.

Here's how he drew the golden flower. See the eight petals? And then he added the trigrams, which have shifted from the basic chart above. (I can't explain it, since I'm just learning about all this.)

Chris also previewed a recently released Joseph Campbell film, Finding Joe, which he received permission to show. So we were among the first in town to see (part of) this film. Click on the blue link to see an even shorter bit than I saw last night.

Happy Year of the Dragon! Yesterday, I meant to show you this wonderful children's book that I reviewed a couple of years ago.

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin is a 2009 children's book, which I rated 9 of 10. Click on the blue link to read my review. Do you see the dragon on the cover? The dragon is flying through the air. Yes!

Added a bit later: Ha! I've learned that Chattanooga, my town, has a Dragon Museum that's all about dragons.

Chinese New Year ~ Dragon

2012-01-23T12:01:00.000-05:00

The Chinese Year of the Dragon began at midnight. It's my year, folks! I was born in the Year of the Dragon. It's one of twelve signs, which means it comes around every twelve years. Having been born in 1940, this is my sixth new dragon year since I was born. In April, I'll be 72. Here one of my favorite dragon photos:

The first day of the Chinese New Year – which began at midnight on January 23, 2012 – is the most important of Chinese holidays. This evening, two friends and I are going to eat Chinese. I'll be wearing red, the lucky color. Here's one more dragon photo. I love these lights!

Sunday Salon ~ continuing the conversation

2012-01-22T01:22:00.003-05:00

More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

First, here's a story that's been bouncing around the web for several years that came to me again this week.

Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could, so she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, "To Meredith" in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called "When a Pet Dies." Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey and Meredith and this note:

Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help, and I recognized her right away. Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter, and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have. I picked her especially for you. I send my blessings every day, and remember that I love you very much. By the way, I'm easy to find. I am wherever there is love.
Love, God

Heaven

This story tugs at our heart strings, doesn't it? We know a human person at the Post Office chose to buy that book and write back to Meredith and her mother, and it makes us feel good that someone did that. But not a one of us believes a person named "God" sat down and wrote a letter to that little girl. We don't believe that because we don't think "Heaven" is a place where the Post Office delivers mail to God.

Last week, the Sunday school class I attended did talk about John Shelby Spong's book Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World. And one woman in the class was upset because some of the others (maybe most of the others) disagreed with her beliefs about heaven. I got the impression heaven was such a real place to her that she could almost imagine that letter to Meredith was written by God. Church people tend to say things like "up above" when speaking of God. Where does that come from?

Creation

Let me show you the world as envisioned by the writer(s) of the book of Genesis in the Bible.

I wrote a study of Genesis and want to share a shortened version of the first session, going through the days of creation. This photo is one of my "finished" flipchart pages at the end of that session. You'll have to imagine it as I describe it, since I don't have time to photograph it in stages — or days. Hear it as a story, with my asides.

DAY 1 — In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless nothing in the midst of chaos, and darkness was everywhere.

ASIDE — A day or so before class, I paint a flipchart page blue, as in the background above, to represent the dark, watery chaos.

A wind from God, the Spirit of God, swept over the face of the waters that early Hebrews believed were present at creation. God's first command was "let there be light" and there was light. And even before naming the light "Day" and the darkness "Night," God could see that the light was GOOD. That was the very first day, counting from the first evening to the next.

DAY 2 — Next, God decreed a dome to separate waters from waters, with some water above the dome and some below.

ASIDE — The dome is that white paper taped onto the blue (above). Imagine a glass bowl, inverted, and carefully placed in your tub. There would be air inside it, and the bowl would keep out the water above and the water below.

God said it and it was so, and God named this dome "Sky." That was the second day, counting from one evening until dusk the next day.

DAY 3 — Then God decreed that the waters under the Sky should be gathered together in one place so dry land could appear. God said it and it was so, and God named the dry land "Earth" and the gathered waters "Seas." And God saw that together the Earth and the Seas were GOOD.

ASIDE — You could imagine those mountains on the sides as holding up that dome. And the land extends down into the lower water like pillars to help hold up the sky. Maybe there's an island of dry land in the middle, as I've shown.

On the same day, God told Earth to produce vegetation, with seed-bearing plants and fruit trees of every kind. And it happened just that way. And once again God pronounced these things GOOD. That's how it was on the third day, counting from one evening to the next.

ASIDE — Notice I drew some green vegetation and trees on the brown hills.

DAY 4 — God speaks again, and this time we have lights in the Sky to separate Day and Night and to shed light upon the Earth. God said it and the Sun and the Moon appeared, with stars thrown in to fill the night Sky. Light was separated from darkness, and God saw it was GOOD. And lighting up the Sky was the fourth day's work, counting evening and morning.

ASIDE — I put Day on one side and Night on the other side of my picture. Help me out here by using your imagination.

DAY 5 — Then God was ready to command the waters to bring forth schools of fish and other creatures to live in the waters and birds to fly across the Sky above the Earth. Along with abundant numbers of every living and moving thing, God also created winged insects. And once again God saw that these creatures were GOOD. That's when God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the Earth and the Seas." That's what God did on the fifth day, evening and morning.

ASIDE — Now it gets fun. If you double-click on my photo, you can see my birds flying in the Sky and swarms of fish in the waters. I threw in a purple sea monster for fun, and made the monster monstrous, with three heads. Why not?

DAY 6 — Next, God told Earth to produce land creatures, and this included both wild animals and what we'd call domesticated livestock, as well as the creeping things that move along the ground. And once again God saw that these created things were GOOD. And on the day the animals were created, God decided to make humans in the image and likeness of God. These humans would have responsibility for the fish and the birds, the wild and tame animals, and the creeping things. So God did it, creating humans in male and female forms. After blessing them, God told the humans to "be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth." And those first humans were given responsibility for the care of all living things. Their food would be from the plants and trees, just as that was to be food for the birds and beasts. And it was so. God saw every created thing, and really, it was VERY GOOD. And that was the sixth day of creation.

ASIDE — I drew stick figures, asking the students name four-legged animals. Is that a dog, a giraffe, or a horse on the hill to the right? You decide. Then I add a couple to two-legged animals and let them decide which is male and which female. Hmm, is there a snake up in that apple tree?

DAY 7 —And there you have it. God's good creation. On the seventh day, God rested.

Middle Earth

So where is heaven? It's above the dome, where God can open windows to let the rain and snow fall down to earth. You can see earth in the middle of my picture, and — though I failed to draw it in — Sheol is below the earth. Sheol is the place where everyone goes when they die, and it wasn't "hell" as we think of it these days. It was just "under the earth" where everyone is buried when they die. Here's a drawing like mine, but one that shows Sheol.

Three layers — heaven on top, earth in the middle, and burial beneath the earth. (But not as far down as the waters below the earth, which gushed up as fountains when "the whole world" flooded in the time of Noah.) So is heaven a place? In what sense?

I asked in a children's sermon, "Where is God?" Someone said, "Up in heaven." I asked, "Which direction is that?" All the children pointed to the ceiling. I asked, "Which direction is up, for people who live in Australia?" Some pointed down. I named places all around the world, and our fingers were pointing up, down, left, right. We finally agreed that God, who is love, is "in our hearts."

So is heaven in my heart?

Kiki Caturday ~ a snapshot

2012-01-21T01:21:00.012-05:00

Bonnie has been busy this week packing books into boxes, as you can barely see in this photo. She makes me tired, just watching her, so mostly I just close my eyes. That means I have to catnap so I don't see her, see? She took the picture, so we'll call this her Saturday Snapshot. Even if I did post it for her because she's been busy making plans to get together with her friend who is in town this weekend from Florida.

Kiki Cat, signing off

This meme is hosted by Alyce @ At Home With Books.
Links to today's photos are here.

When, exactly, did you become an adult?

2012-01-20T17:40:00.000-05:00

Beth Kephart asked in her post today, "When, exactly, did you become an adult?" Funny she should ask, I thought, as I dashed out the door before even reading beyond her title, which appears on the sidebar here, under "Blogs I read." I had places to go and people to see, but now I'm home and have looked up what I wrote in 2006 about becoming an adult. At the time, I was sixty-six years old, having been born in 1940. (That's important to know when I mention 1960, okay?) After reading this, you won't be surprised to hear that I still occasionally wonder what I want to be when I grow up.

Bits of Bonnie

When I started thinking about "becoming an adult," it seemed to me the first thing to consider was what makes a person an adult. Once there were initiations to pass, as when a boy joined the men on a hunt and killed his first "food." Once, a girl was considered an adult when she began to menstruate and could have children. I had my first period when I was twelve; did that make me an adult? I don't think so!

I married at eighteen; did that make me an adult? Apparently not. When we bought a house in early 1960, I was nineteen and my husband was twenty-five. He could sign the papers, but I could not ... because I was a minor. At that time the legal age was twenty-one, but that has fluctuated in my lifetime. Anyway, I had to go before a judge to get my "minority" removed. Then I could sign legal papers and be co-owner of our first house.

Did owning a house make me an adult? Apparently not. I couldn't vote in the 1960 election between Nixon and Kennedy ... or at least I assumed I couldn't vote ... because I was only twenty. A few years ago it occurred to me that maybe I could have voted after all, since officially my minority had been removed earlier that same year and I was "legally" an adult. But I didn't think of that until about 45 years too late.

When I was twenty, my twins were born; did that make me an adult? When people asked me how I managed, I would tell them, "I didn't know what to do with ONE, and I got TWO."

My father died in a traffic accident when I was twenty-four, and my widowed mother was in shock; so my 21-year-old brother and I had to arrange the funeral. Did that make me an adult?

Somehow, things keep happening and we keep going, doing whatever is necessary to cope. Maybe I became an adult at the point I was able to put the pieces together sufficiently to be able to say with confidence that I now knew my own mind and could give a satisfactory answer to the meaning of my life. If so (I wrote in late 2006), I became an adult only four or five years ago in my early sixties! And THAT, dear heart, is why my email is "emerging.paradigm" ... because I am emerging into my new way of being.

Am I an adult now? Maybe it depends on the day. Some days I feel like I'm in my second childhood.

Your turn

How would you answer the question? When, exactly, did you become an adult?

Beginning ~ with a family portrait

2012-01-20T12:20:00.002-05:00

Together Alone ~ by Barbara Delinsky, 1995, fiction (Massachusetts)

He wasn't going to like it. He hated the ritual of the formal family picture, but the time was right. In four short days, his only child was leaving the nest, breaking out of her chrysalis into an exciting new world. If ever there was an occasion to mark, this was it.

I've been reading heavy, deep stuff and am ready for something light, so I bought this novel by Barbara Delinsky, knowing it's about women setting off in a new direction. I've read her books before and know there will probably be a happy ending. Why is their child leaving? College, according to the synopsis and the next few lines of the book. No surprise there, but I'm so ready to read this. From the back cover:

With their daughters off to college, the time has come for forever best friends Emily, Kay, and Celeste to redefine themselves as women. Once half of a perfect marriage — still suffering from a terrible loss — Emily hardly knows her workaholic husband, Doug, anymore, and is drawn instead to what is offered by a new neighbor. A dedicated teacher who loves her job, Kay is confused and troubled by husband John's unfamiliar demands. And Celeste, long-divorced and ecstatic with freedom, sees her electric new life dimmed when her child is endangered.

If you want to share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Katy at A Few More Pages. (Today's list.)

Browse there to find interesting books for your own reading list. And don’t forget that Katy and all the contributors to this meme (including me) love comments.

Library Loot ~ January 18-24

2012-01-18T09:00:00.003-05:00

Winston of Churchill: One Bear's Battle Against Global Warming ~ by Jean Davies Okimoto, 2007, children's picture book, 10/10

Winston is worried because the ice of the Hudson Bay is melting sooner each year and he and his fellow polar bears have less time to hunt for food, but he comes up with an idea that will make the tourists who come to see the bears realize what is going on.

Winston wrote a book for the other polar bears. It includes this sentence: "People need to burn less gas, make less garbage, and plant more trees." Some polar bear asked, "But what can we do?" Winston's answer:

"We can't do anything ... We are bears. We don't drive cars or burn coal. We like it cold."

And then came the refrain, repeated often in the book:

"Yes, ice is nice," everyone agreed.

So they must convince people to change, and that's what they proceed to do. Winston has a plan for a polar bear protest. Everyone said yes, except for one bear who said, "No." It was Winston's wife. Notice the bear is named "Winston," and these polar bears live near the town of "Churchill" in the Canadian province of Manitoba. Kids who "read" picture books won't make any connection when they hear Winston and Churchill, but their parents will. The book even quotes Winston Churchill's war rhetoric with the words, "We shall defend our island..." One cub (smart kid) speaks up: "We don't live on an island. We live in Manitoba." Winston tells him it was "just a figure of speech." Uh-huh, Churchill's speech.

(click to enlarge this back cover)

Oh, yeah, Winston's wife, says she won't join the protest unless he quits smoking. Just like the man in England, he smokes a cigar. But his wife says,

"That thing in your mouth is an instrument of pollution." Then she adds, "No cigar or I'm not going."

The next morning, the bears marched across the tundra with signs saying, "Solar Power" and "Freeze Please" and "Save our Home." And Winston?

And the fierce, brave bear they were following ... was chewing a twig.

Find yourself a copy and read it to see what happens next, okay? This great story book rate 10 of 10 with me.

(I think I'll have to cross-post this review on Greening the Blue Planet. When I started blogging five years ago, one of my blogs was about environmental issues, and I faithfully posted there as well as here on my book blog. Click the link to go take a look, if this subject interests you.)

The Discovery of Jeanne Baret: A Story of Science, the High Seas, and the First Woman to Circumnavigate the Globe ~ by Glynis Ridley, 2010, biography

The year was 1765. Eminent botanist Philibert Commerson had just been appointed to a grand new expedition: the first French circumnavigation of the world. As the ships’ official naturalist, Commerson would seek out resources — medicines, spices, timber, food — that could give the French an edge in the ever-accelerating race for empire. Jeanne Baret, Commerson’s young mistress and collaborator, was desperate not to be left behind. She disguised herself as a teenage boy and signed on as his assistant. The journey made the twenty-six-year-old, known to her shipmates as “Jean” rather than “Jeanne,” the first woman to ever sail around the globe.

The Night Circus ~ by Erin Morgenstern, 2011, fiction

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night. But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway — a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them, this is a game in which only one can be left standing.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Claire has the Mister Linky this week.

Can we talk about it? ~ Sunday Salon

2012-01-15T05:15:00.008-05:00

"No public man in these islands ever believes that the Bible means what it says: he is always convinced that it says what he means."
— George Bernard Shaw

I like this quote that I ran across yesterday. And the painting. Yes, I know most people would show the man's face, but I figure if you are interested, you'll google his name and find lots of photos of George Bernard Shaw, young and old and in between. This one, with his hair blowing in the wind (enlarge by clicking on the image), epitomizes for me the winds of dissension that often arise when people discuss religion. Nevertheless, let's talk about it, shall we?

This morning, the Seekers Class at St. Luke United Methodist Church, a group of folks I've been teaching off and on for more than five years now, will be looking at a chapter of the latest book by John Shelby Spong. Re-Claiming the Bible for a Non-Religious World, published in November, is one of twenty-some books the bishop has written. I told you about this one after I went to hear him speak a couple of months ago, but Sean was the only one who left a comment on that post.

"I appreciate what Spong is doing. Speaking from the non-religious, non-god-believing side — [Sean, not Spong, believes] the Bible is a book and Jesus is a figure of history. I don't place much value on the Bible beyond its place in history and as a piece of literature. I am far more concerned that whatever group/religion we belong to, that we are doing good and being helpful to one another, the rest is merely dressing."

Sean also left this comment on one of my Library Loot posts:

"I haven't read any Spong but then I have probably moved along from the questioning/investigation of my religion of birth. I do still enjoy the history aspect of things but I am a humanist now and don't really see much value in continually examining the bible as a guide book for life. I try to be hands-on in community service and be broader in my philosophical outlook. But I will check out the link."

I've been meaning to respond to Sean for weeks, so now is (finally) the time I'll "get a round tuit." I hope Sean isn't the only one to speak up today. Frankly, my dear(s), I appreciate Sean's willingness to be engaged in dialogue. But first, let me clear up a few things.

(1) I wouldn't call the Bible "a guide book for life."

Would a guidebook say this? "Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with perfect hatred; I count them my enemies." That's the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV) of Psalm 139: 21-22, if you want to check your translation. I hear some Christians saying they follow Jesus who said, "Love your enemies." That's from Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:27, and Luke 6:35 (NRSV). But how many Christians have acted full of pride, just like the Pharisee in Luke 18:9-14 who considered himself so much better than that tax collector over there? How many have kept women "in their place" because of the words in First Corinthians 11:7? "For a man ... is the image and reflection of God; but woman is the reflection of man." The Bible is not a rule book, and Paul (who wrote First Corinthians) is not God.

(2) I do NOT agree with Bishop Spong on everything, but he does get people talking!

But not always in good ways. He said, "People don't need to be born again; they need to grow up." That's a blunt statement that some may feel as a slap in the face, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to be open to any sort of discussion. I want us to be able to talk about what's important, whether it's in the Bible or not. Sean sees no need to keep investigating the religion of his birth (and I admit I don't know whether he grew up Jewish or Christian or something else). I still work at understanding the Bible (the Jewish and Christian scriptures), and also the Tao te Ching (Taoism) and other books sacred to various faiths. I do that partly because I teach religions of the world, but also because I have learned that at the base of all religions is compassion. What's not to like about that?

(3) We need to be clear what we mean by the word God (or god).

I studied philosophy in college shortly after this Time magazine cover hit the stands. The words are from Friedrich Nietzsche and got the religious world all in an uproar. About that time, I read Your God Is Too Small by J. B. Phillips, who cited a bunch of "unreal gods," such as resident policeman, parental hangover, grand old man, managing director, and assorted others. (Click on the title to see the text of the book.) There's no way I can "believe in" a god like those portrayed by cartoonists — you know, the white-bearded old white-man god wearing a robe and sitting on a cloud "up there." If that's your idea of god, I say it would be good to let "him" die. What does "God" mean to you? How would you describe or explain who or what God is?

Sean, I also believe the Bible is a book, which I continue to study. I also believe Jesus was a man, which is what I think you mean by "a figure of history." I also think we should look at the Bible's place in history and recognize that different parts of it are different kinds of literature, and not all historical fact: some parables (stories), some history (though not as we write history books), some apocalyptic literature (big words, huh?), some rules (many of which are no longer appropriate — for example, the Jews quit practicing animal sacrifice, no matter what the Bible says).

If anything here interests you readers of my blog, let's talk. Ask me questions, and I'll do my best to answer honestly. For now, let me leave you with a quote from page 15 of Spong's book:

"I am not the enemy of the Bible. I am the enemy of the way the Bible has been understood and the way the Bible has been used."

Me, too.

More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

Beginning ~ lost limb

2012-01-13T19:54:00.002-05:00

Kindred ~ by Octavia E. Butler, 1979, fiction (Maryland), 9/10

I lost an arm on my last trip home. My left arm.

Wow! What a beginning. Of course, I wanted to keep reading. This is a time travel book. (I'm on a roll, since the last novel I finished was 11/22/63, about a man who went into the past hoping to stop Lee Harvey Oswald from assassinating JFK.) Here's a synopsis the back cover of Kindred, which I got from my library:

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Will the real Elizabeth please stand up?

2012-01-12T13:12:00.032-05:00

The Paper Bag Princess: The Story Behind the Story ~ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, 2005 (25th anniversary edition), 9/10

Robert Munsch's tale of a dragon, a princess named Elizabeth, and the bum of a prince she rescues has sold over three million copies since it was first published in 1980. I learned in this "story behind the story" that there really was a girl named Elizabeth. She is now an adult, is married, and has two children — a son and a daughter. And she says (p.14):

"It's amazing to me now that the book is read by so many people. It's even studied in feminist literature classes!"

Yes, people love The Paper Bag Princess! I loved it when I first read it in 2010 after Helen of Helen's Book Blog told me about it in a comment:

"I love children's books that go against the norm. One of my favorites is The Paper Bag Princess where the princess is the strong one and doesn't marry the goofy prince in the end."

It's true. Princess Elizabeth is a spunky little girl. The dragon smashed her castle, burned all her clothes, and carried off Prince Ronald (p. 28). The only thing the princess could find to wear was a paper bag, yet she bravely went after the dragon. Was Ronald grateful when she rescued him? Oh, no! He said (pp. 46-48):

"Elizabeth, you are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."

"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince, but you are a bum."

They didn't get married after all.

Girls are more than the clothes they wear, and that's why the original book is studied in college classes on feminist literature. Bob Munsch, the author, says (p. 51):

"There are no princes but there are a lot of bums, and you don't want to marry one."

The same page (p. 51) of this "story behind the story" reports:

"The story has now crossed generations — those who loved the book as kids are reading it to their own children — and has even traveled around the world. Not bad for a girl dressed only in paper."


Best illustration, where she ducks but doesn't run away. (Click to enlarge.)

Christopher Garcia, an educator in El Paso, Texas, says (p. 53):

"Our young princess's handling of pesky dragons and arrogant royalty inspired my students and me. Self-respect and confidence in one's self are her gifts to girls and boys alike."

I rate this book about the book 9 of 10, because it's fun to read. And I'll give the author the final word here (quoting from p. 62):

"A paper bag
Does not last long,
It burns or blows away.
But now that mine is 25,
I think it's here to stay."

I agree, especially since it has now been seven more years (32 so far) and is still attracting readers like me.

Portal to the past ~ 11/22/63 by Stephen King

2012-01-12T02:40:00.002-05:00

What's this look like to you?

Would you believe it comes close to being my review of Stephen King's latest novel? When 11/22/63 was published in November 2011, I found "A brief history of time travel literature" which describes the book like this:

An example of an alternate history style time travel novel, thirty-five-year-old high-school English teacher Jake Epping is leading an ordinary life when his friend Al, who runs the local diner, reveals that his storeroom is a portal to 1958 and sets Jake on a mission to prevent the JFK assassination.

The article divides time travel literature into five ways people got to the past or future — I added number six, based on my favorite time travel book.

Mechanical, as in The Time Machine by H. G. Wells, 1895 (a machine that controls time travel)
Portal, as in 11/22/63 by Stephen King, 2011 (a place you go through)
Fantastical, as in A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843 (Scrooge went into his past and future)
Magical item, as in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling, 1999 (Hermione's "time turner")
Unexplained, as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain, 1889
Mind, as in Time and Again by Jack Finney, 1970 (get to the past by imagining yourself there)

Stephen King

I found a couple of other reviewers who agree with me on King's "irritating writerly habits."

Rob: "He’s still aggravatingly windy, still repetitious in a way that I always found insulting; phrases that he repeats and repeats and repeats, over and over and over until you want to hunt him down and beat him to death with his own hardback — which is entirely possible with this damn brick of a book. Go ahead, drop it on your socked foot. I double dog dare you."

Overall, I think the book was too long and needed to be tightened up.

Susie: "Pacing. There was a whole lotta boring going on in this book. Not to say that the book itself, in its entirety, was boring, but there was a lot of extraneous action that either dragged out longer than it needed, or it didn’t need to be in there in the first place. Some of these scenes didn’t give us any kind of payoff as far as creating suspense in their own right; I would have been happier if the more perfunctory scenes happened 'off-camera.' ... There was also a whole construct that actually created more predictability, 'harmonics.' Harmonics allowed not just me but also Jake Epping to predict the future. Boring, boring, boring."

By the way, that's Susie's drawing at the top of this post — one commenter said it "looks like a 3-year-old’s drawing of the Loch Ness Monster eating a bunch of people." (Looks more like Nessie is eating a bunch of loose grapes to me.)

Another annoyance — I didn't mark the page (and in this long book, I'd never find it again) — King had someone in the 1960s say something about a "rugrat," meaning a small child. He or she may have been referring to Junie Oswald, but I'm not sure. The term rugrats didn't appear until decades later, maybe when the "Rugrats" cartoon premiered in 1991. That sort of thing was jarring for me, since I remember the 1950s and 1960s. I was there! Okay, maybe Stephen King couldn't cross-check everything, but that out-of-place stuff happened too often. Still, the book was a good enough to keep me turning the pages.

When got to the end of the book, in the author's Afterword (pp. 848-849), I laughed at the last lines:

Jack Finney

I want to thank one other person: the late Jack Finney, who was one of America's great fantasists and storytellers. ... he wrote Time and Again, which is, in this writer's humble opinion, the great time-travel story. Originally I meant to dedicate this book to him, but in June of last year, a lovely little granddaughter arrived in our family, so Zelda gets the nod. Jack, I'm sure you'd understand.

Was I prescient, or what, when I added Finney's Time and Again to the list above? After reading 11/22/63 (which I rated 9 of 10), I still think Time and Again is better (I rated it 10 of 10).

Questions for you

1. If you could go back in time and change history, would you do it? If so, which part of history?

2. What do you think about the ethics of using "future" knowledge to make money in the past?

3. Al and Jake are nervous about triggering Ray Bradbury’s butterfly effect, when they go back in time. (Click the link to read my post about that.) Do you think changing something in the past would change the future?

Library Loot ~ January 11-17

2012-01-11T01:11:00.006-05:00

Kindred ~ by Octavia E. Butler, 1979, fiction

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned to save him. Dana is drawn back repeatedly through time to the slave quarters, and each time the stay grows longer, more arduous, and more dangerous until it is uncertain whether or not Dana's life will end, long before it has a chance to begin.

Zeitoun ~ by Dave Eggers, 2009, history (Louisiana)

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, longtime New Orleans residents Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun are cast into an unthinkable struggle with forces beyond wind and water. In this startling and deeply humane work of nonfiction, readers will witness our country's worst natural disaster through new eyes, encountering all the hope and contradiction of a unique moment in American history.

Because of Winn-Dixie ~ by Kate DiCamilla, 2000, middle grade fiction (Florida)

One summer day, Opal goes into a supermarket and comes out with a scraggly dog that she names Winn-Dixie. Because of Winn-Dixie, her preacher father finally tells her ten things about her absentee mother, and Opal makes lots of unusual friends in her quirky Florida town. And because of Winn-Dixie, Opal grows to learn that friendship — and forgiveness — can sneak up on you like a sudden storm.

The Paper Bag Princess: The Story Behind the Story ~ by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko, 2005 (25th anniversary edition)

Robert Munsch's tale — of a dragon, a princess named Elizabeth, and the bum of a prince she rescues — was first published in 1980. It was an instant success and has since sold millions of copies in dozens of languages all over the world. Readers will discover how Munsch — once on a path to becoming a priest — became one of the most famous children's authors of all time. They'll learn how an extra space on a gallery wall landed Martchenko his first, and most legendary, children's book gig ever. And they'll meet the real Elizabeth and see what she's up to today. Never-before published sketches and paintings take readers through the process of the book's creation.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian ~ by Sherman Alexie, 2001, YA fiction

Junior is a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot. This story, based on the author's own experiences, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he thought he was destined to live. Won the 2007 National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks ~ by Rebecca Skloot, 2010, science (Maryland)

Henrietta Lacks, a poor Southern tobacco farmer, was buried in an unmarked grave sixty years ago. Yet her cells — taken without her knowledge — became one of the most important tools in medical research. Known to science as HeLa, the first "immortal" human cells grown in culture are still alive today, and have been bought and sold by the millions. Rebecca Skloot takes us on an extraordinary journey from the "colored" ward of Johns Hopkins Hospital in the 1950s to East Baltimore today, where Henrietta's family struggles with her legacy.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Claire has the Mister Linky again this week.

What a fun bookstore!

2012-01-10T20:41:00.000-05:00

Nancy (Bookfool) posted this on Facebook, and I love it. Enjoy!

Sunday Salon ~ life and books

2012-01-08T07:00:00.005-05:00

More TSS posts can be found on Facebook.

Family

Let me tell you about the best date I've had in years. On Thursday evening, my grandson and I went to Chili's for dinner. He'll be 19 next week, is over six feet tall (6'3"), and towers over me. And he's amazingly polite. He opened the car door, let me out at the door when we discovered the parking lot was full, tried to pay for the meal (no, grandmothers get to do that), and — immediately after he got home — posted a thank you message on Facebook to let me know how much he enjoyed the evening. I'm so glad he's my grandson. I told Jamey about the "olden days" when I was dating his grandfather and how romantic he had been on the night he proposed to me. One week after we were married, he brought me a long-stemmed red rose; the second week, two red roses; then three the next week and four the next; and a half-card (literally, an anniversary card cut in half) when we'd been married six months. The next day, Jamey posted this on Facebook:

"I learned a whole new side about my Grandpa that i never knew last night. Thank you Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs."

Friends

A couple of days ago, I attended the First Friday event Leap into Art, a group exhibit of original artwork celebrating leap year, at the In-Town Gallery, to see my friend Jane's artwork. This week, I've been teaching Jane how to blog. Since she is still learning, I won't link to her blog (yet), but she's coming along faster than I did. I learned by trial and error, so she is benefitting from my knowledge, and — as of January 30 — I've been at it for five years. As I think back over the years, I realize I've come a long way, baby!

Books

For some reason, I bogged down in the chapter "The New Testament and Anti-Judaism" in the middle of The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus by Amy-Jill Levine.

So I have set it aside for the time being and have started reading 11/22/63, a novel by Stephen King about a time-traveling attempt to thwart JFK's assassination. This is a 849-page book, so it ought to keep me busy for a few days.

I finished reading my first book of 2012: Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, a 2011 novel, set in Mississippi, that I rated 9 of 10, an excellent book.

Saturday Snapshot ~ two readers

2012-01-07T01:07:00.006-05:00

Another generation of readers. Yes, they are reading books I gave them for Christmas. Love of reading runs in the family. Do you suppose it's in our genes?

Jaxon, my 1-year-old great-grandson, was surrounded by men of the family.

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, got Janis to read to her.

This meme is hosted by Alyce @ At Home With Books.
Links to today's photos are here.

Beginning ~ with a rash title

2012-01-06T01:06:00.002-05:00

The Gospel of Jesus: A Historical Search for the Original Good News ~ by James M. Robinson, 2005, religion

The rash title of this book, The Gospel of Jesus, does not have in view the gospel about Jesus that Paul preached, which, following him, the Christian church down through the ages has believed as the one and only gospel ... Rather, the title refers to the gospel that was Jesus' own message in Galilee during a very brief period, probably no more than a year, before his crucifixion. These two gospels are not the same, and, what is even worse, Jesus' own gospel has been lost from sight, hidden behind the gospel of the church.

Well, this is off to an interesting start. I wonder what Robinson will say is different between the message of Jesus and the message of the church. Is anyone else curious about stuff like this?

If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning. Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.

Three books by T. R. Pearson

2012-01-05T01:05:00.004-05:00

A Short History of a Small Place ~ by T. R. Pearson, 1985, fiction (North Carolina)

In this introduction to the imaginary town of Neely North Carolina, the young narrator, Louis Benfield, recounts the tragic last days of Miss Myra Angelique Pettigrew, a local spinster and former town belle who, after years of total seclusion, returns flamboyantly to public view-with her pet monkey, Mr. Britches.

The Last of How It Was ~ by T. R. Pearson, 1987, fiction (North Carolina)

Louis Benfield narrates the convoluted and often tragic Benfield family history in this third in Pearson's trilogy about Neeley, North Carolina — after A Short History of a Small Place (above) and Off for the Sweet Hereafter (about a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde who cut a wide swath of mayhem and murder before their number comes up in a bloody blaze of glory).

Glad News of the Natural World ~ by T. R. Pearson, 2005, fiction (New York)

This is a sequel to A Short History of a Small Place, but it isn't necessary to read the earlier novel in order to make sense of this one. Now older but not necessarily wiser, Louis Benfield has moved to New York City from his hometown of Neely, North Carolina, in order to get a sense of the larger world. Louis is a modern-day Candide, looking for love and experience in all the wrong places. However, when tragedy strikes, he finds the maturity needed to be more than man enough for the job.

My friend Jane thought I should read these books and handed them to me when I was at her house a couple of days ago. Have you read any of them?

Library Loot ~ January 4-10

2012-01-04T01:04:00.005-05:00

Gilgamesh ~ by Joan London, 2003, fiction (Australia and Armenia)

It is 1937. The modern world, they say, is waiting to erupt. On a tiny farm in far southwestern Australia, seventeen-year-old Edith lives with her mother and sister, Frances. One afternoon two men, her English cousin Leopold and his Armenian friend Aram, arrive — taking the long way home from an archaeological dig in Iraq. Edith is captivated by the tales they tell of strange peoples, magical journeys, and a world far beyond the narrow horizon of her small town of Nunderup. One such story is the epic of Gilgamesh, the ancient Mesopotamian king who adventured throughout the world with his friend, the wild man Enkidu, in search of the secret of eternal life. Two years later, in 1939, Edith and her young son, Jim, set off on a journey of their own, to Soviet Armenia, where they are trapped by the outbreak of war.

Gilgamesh: A New English Version ~ by Stephen Mitchell, 2004, fiction (Iraq)

Written a thousand years before Homer's Iliad, this powerful epic was lost for nearly 2000 years until it was found on clay tablets in the ruins of Nineva. Gilgamesh is considered one of the masterpieces of world literature. Stephen Mitchell's version allows us to enter an ancient masterpiece as if for the first time, to see how startlingly beautiful, intelligent, and alive it is.

The hero is 16 feet tall. He is the king of Uruk, in the Iraq of about 2750 BCE, and he is a despot, running afoul of even the gods. The man who is his soul mate, lover, and spouse is Enkidu, who was once wild and naked but was tamed by the erotic ministrations of a temple priestess. When their preemptive strike on a monster of evil results in the death of Enkidu, Gilgamesh's desperate mourning and search for a way to avoid a similar fate leads him to understand, at the end of the world, that the best way to find wisdom is not to look for it.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union ~ by Michael Chabon, 2007, fiction (Alaska)

For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a "temporary" safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The Jews of the Sitka District have created their own little world in the Alaskan panhandle, a vibrant and complex frontier city that moves to the music of Yiddish. But now the District is set to revert to Alaskan control, and their dream is coming to an end. Homicide detective Meyer Landsman of the District Police has enough problems without worrying about the upcoming Reversion. His life is a shambles, his marriage a wreck, his career a disaster. And in the cheap hotel where Landsman has washed up, someone has just committed a murder — right under his nose. When he begins to investigate the killing of his neighbor, a former chess prodigy, word comes down from on high that the case is to be dropped immediately, and Landsman finds himself contending with all the powerful forces of faith, obsession, evil, and salvation that are his heritage.

The Book Thief ~ by Markus Zusak, 2006, YA fiction (Germany)

It’s just a small story really, about among other things: a girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery. ... Set during World War II in Germany, this is the story of Liesel Meminger, a foster girl living outside of Munich. Liesel scratches out a meager existence for herself by stealing when she encounters something she can’t resist – books. With the help of her accordion-playing foster father, she learns to read and shares her stolen books with her neighbors during bombing raids as well as with the Jewish man hidden in her basement before he is marched to Dachau. This is an unforgettable story about the ability of books to feed the soul.

Salvage the Bones ~ by Jesmyn Ward, 2011, fiction (Mississippi)

Winner of the 2011 National Book Award. A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family — motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce — pulls itself up to face another day. A wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty.

Supporting an indie bookstore

2012-01-03T13:03:00.002-05:00

I got these books from a local independent bookstore.

Our Only May Amelia ~ Jennifer L. Holm, 1999. YA fiction (Washington), 8/10

It isn′t easy being a pioneer in the state of Washington in 1899, but it′s particularly hard when you are the only girl ever born in the new settlement. With seven older brothers and a love of adventure, May Amelia Jackson just can′t seem to abide her family′s insistence that she behave like a Proper Young Lady. She′s sure she could do better if only there were at least one other girl living along the banks of the Nasel River. And now that Mama′s going to have a baby, maybe there′s hope. The story was inspired by the diaries of the author's great-aunt, the real May Amelia.

The Silent Boy ~ by Lois Lowry, 2003, YA fiction, 9/10

Katy Thatcher was the bright and curious daughter of the town doctor. She was fascinated by her father’s work, and even as a child she knew that she too wanted to be a doctor. She wanted to know about people. Perhaps it was this, her insatiable curiosity, or simply the charm of Jacob’s gentle intimacy with animals large and small, that fueled their friendship. Although Jacob never spoke to her or even looked at her directly, Katy grew to understand him from the moments they spent together quietly singing to the horses. She knew there was meaning in the sounds he made and purpose behind his movements. So when events took an unexpected and tragic turn, it was Katy alone who could unravel the mystery of what had occurred, and why. I've already reviewed this one, here.

Honest to God: 40 Years On ~ edited by Colin Slee, 2004, religion

This is the edited collection of papers given at the recent symposium called "Honest to God, Forty Years On." The symposium was held to discuss how far the issues raised in Honest to God by John Robinson, published 40 years earlier, had impacted the church and Christian thought. The book reflects discussions of four main areas: how the original text tried to relate doctrine to contemporary thought, God language then and now, whether religion been reduced to ethics, and the meaning of Jesus then and now.

The Gospel of Jesus: A Historical Search for the Original Good News ~ by James M. Robinson, 2005, religion

Robinson scours ancient sources to discover what Jesus actually said and did, his childhood and youth, his family, his education and sex life, his conversion and message, his Jewishness and mission to the Gentiles, his relationship to Mary Magdalene, his view of himself, his trust in God, the horror of his crucifixion, and his followers' faith in his resurrection. The church has domesticated the gospel of Jesus, focusing on Paul's narrow interpretation of his message and burying the truth under layers of historical conflicts, political stratagems, and theological interpretations.

The New Creation: John Wesley's Theology Today ~ by Theodore Runyon, 1998, religion

Having studied under Professor Runyon at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, I'm curious about what he says here. The summary says he "sets Wesley's own discussion of the "way of salvation" in the larger context of Christian doctrine, beginning with the Creation (and the Fall) and moving through the drama of salvation towards its eschatological fulfillment in the 'new creation' of all things."

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why ~ by Bart D. Ehrman, 2005, religion

From the Introduction: "This book is about ancient manuscripts of the New Testament and the differences found in them, the scribes who copied scripture and sometimes changed it. ... It is written for people who know nothing about textual criticism but who might like to learn something about how scribes were changing scripture and about how we can recognize where they did so."

Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew ~ by Bart D. Ehrman, 2003, religion

The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God, but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human. Ehrman these early forms of Christianity came to be suppressed, reformed, or forgotten. All of these groups insisted that they upheld the teachings of Jesus and his apostles, and they all possessed writings that bore out their claims, books reputedly produced by Jesus's own followers. Archaeological work has recovered a number of key texts, revealing religious diversity that says much about the way history gets written by the winners.

Eternal Life: A New Vision: Beyond Religion, Beyond Theism, Beyond Heaven and Hell ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2009, religion

God, says Spong, is ultimately one, and each of us is part of that oneness. We do not live on after death as children who have been rewarded with heaven or punished with hell, but as part of the life and being of God, sharing in God's eternity, which is beyond the barriers of time and space. Spong argues that the discovery of the eternal can be found within each of us if we go deeply into ourselves, transcend our limits, and become fully human. By seeking God within, by living each day to its fullest, we will come to understand how we live eternally. Spong takes us beyond Christianity and religion to arrive at the affirmation that the fully realized human life empties into and participates in the eternity of God. The pathway into God turns out to be both a pathway into ourselves and a doorway into eternal life.

The Sins of Scripture: Exposing the Bible's Texts of Hate to Reveal the God of Love ~ by John Shelby Spong, 2005, religion

The Bible contains many passages that believers and nonbelievers alike would recognize as appalling theology. Whether these texts are used to discriminate, oppress, or condemn, they distort the truth of Christianity and cast doubt upon the love of God. Spong addresses these passages, shattering our misconceptions and delivering a new vision of how Christians today can use the Bible.

Resurrection: Myth or Reality? : A Bishop Searches for the Origins of Christianity ~ by John Shelby Spong, 1994

Using approaches from the Hebrew interpretive tradition to discern the actual events surrounging Jesus' death, Bishop Spong questions the hitorical validity of literal narrative concerned the Ressurection. He asserts that the resurrection story was born in an experience that opened the disciples' eyes to the reality of God and the meaning of Jesus of Nazareth. Spong traces the Christian origins of anti-Semitism to the Church's fabrication of the ultimate Jewish scapegoat, Judas Iscariot. He affirms the inclusiveness of the Christian message and emphasizes the necessity of mutual integrity and respect among Christians and Jews.

This Hebrew Lord: A Bishop's Search for the Authentic Jesus (new edition) ~ by John Shelby Spong, 1988, 1993, religion

"In this study I found a Lord, a center for my being. Behind the supernatural framework of the first century ... I discovered a life I wanted to know; a life that possessed a power I wanted to possess; a freedom, a wholeness for which I had yearned for years." Illuminating the "figure who stands at the center of all the Christian Church is," Spong explores Jesus under the light of the Hebrew tradition into which he was born. Candid, personal, and soundly argued, this is Spong's spiritual and intellectual pilgrimaged to the Christ he discovered in Jesus of Nazareth.

Living in Sin? : A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality ~ by John Shelby Spong, 1988, religion

Is celibacy the only moral alternative to marriage? Should the widowed be allowed to form intimate relationships without remarrying? Should the church receive homosexuals into its community and support committed gay and lesbian relationships? Should congregations publicly and liturgically witness and affirm divorces? Should the church's moral standards continue to be set by patriarchal males? Should women be consecrated bishops? Bishop Spong proposes a pastoral response based on scripture and history to the changing realities of the modern world. He calls for a moral vision to empower the church with inclusive teaching about equal, loving, nonexploitative relationships.

New Year's Day

2012-01-02T13:02:00.005-05:00

Arline (talking with her hands) and Jane

Ginnie and Donna (doing Google research)

Donna and Carla

The discussion was great, and when we had a question, Donna grabbed her laptop and found the answer for us. Our friends met our other friends, and it was good.

Happy New Year

2012-01-01T00:01:00.003-05:00

Have you made any New Year's resolutions? What are your hopes for this year? I wish you the very best.

Sammy and I welcomed in the new year together. Donna (her person) is working, and Kiki (my cat) is being punished by having to stay in our bedroom with the door closed. Earlier in the evening, Kiki decided her own supper wasn't enough — so she went in Sammy's room and ate half her food and pooped in Sammy's litter box. As you can probably tell by the alarmed look on Sammy's face when I got close with my cell phone camera, she isn't exactly a cuddly cat. She likes her space, except when she chooses to let Donna pet her. She rarely lets me near her, but tonight she chose to be in the living room with me. Just the two of us.

Saturday Snapshot ~ guitar cat

2011-12-31T03:31:00.007-05:00

We're having friends over on New Year's Day tomorrow, and some of them have never been here. This guitar-playing cat is their clue that they've found our apartment.

(Do you like how I managed to post a cat on Caturday?)

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books. To participate, post a photo taken by you (or a friend or family member). Your photo can be old or new, as long as its subject is appropriate for all eyes to see. Check out snapshots others are sharing this week.

A year's worth of reading ~ 208 books

2011-12-31T00:31:00.000-05:00

I've never used charts before, so it's been fun to see how my reading breaks down. The "low" months reflect my July move from St. Elmo to Hixson (from the southside of Chattanooga to the north of town). I read 208 books in all. That's a lot, even for me! I tried sorting out the children's books, thinking maybe my high numbers were all picture books. Nope, reading 160 adult and young adult books is still a lot.

160 adult / YA books
+48 children's books
208 books read in 2011

So I sorted them out by categories, though fewer than I show in my page of books read in 2011. It's already hard enough to read the categories below the colorful stacks on the chart.

Left to right, the categories are: fiction, YA, children's, memoir, religion, and other NF. Hmm, I didn't read as much in the field of religion as I thought I did.

72 fiction
38 YA
48 children's
13 memoir
08 religion
29 other NF
208 total

This is my simplified chart, showing only fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. Looks like fiction, which includes adult fiction and YA fiction, is my main category.

110 fiction
50 nonfiction
48 children's
208 total

What about you? Did you count how many you read in 2011?

Beginning ~ at a graduation

2011-12-30T00:01:00.001-05:00

11/22/63 ~ by Stephen King, 2011, fiction (Maine and Texas)

Harry Dunning graduated with flying colors. I went to the little GED ceremony in the LHS gym, at his invitation. He really had no one else, and I was happy to do it.

With JFK on my mind, this beginning sounds boring, but I'll keep reading because I lived through that day and really, really, really want to see what Stephen King will do with this revised history of his. Here's a summary of the book:

"It begins with Jake Epping, a thirty-five-year-old English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching GED classes. He asks his students to write about an event that changed their lives, and one essay blows him away — a gruesome, harrowing story about the night more than fifty years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a sledgehammer. Reading the essay is a watershed moment for Jake, his life — like Harry’s, like America’s in 1963 — turning on a dime. Not much later his friend Al, who owns the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to the past, a particular day in 1958. And Al enlists Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession — to prevent the Kennedy assassination."

Best of 2011

2011-12-28T20:42:00.003-05:00

Rating books is an inexact science. In fact, it isn't science at all, but how I feel about a book at a particular time. How much we like or dislike a book is based on what's going on in our lives at the time we read it. As I look over these "tens" (books I rated 10 out of 10) in 2011, they are all still among the best and most memorable. You can read what I wrote earlier in the year about each book by clicking on the title. Here's what I remember liking about each of these, shown alphabetically by category:

FICTION

The Art of Racing in the Rain ~ by Garth Stein, 2008, fiction, 10/10

I love Enzo, the dog who is the main character of this novel. Yes, even though I'm a cat person, I love this dog. He makes more sense than some of the humans I know, and I like the way he thinks. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend this book. Photo found here.

Bitsy's Bait and BBQ ~ by Pamela Morsi, 2007, fiction (Missouri), 10/10

My friend Donna bought this one for me as a joke. My childhood nickname, which I never liked, was "Bitsy." I didn't expect to like the book, which was indeed light reading. It must have hit me at exactly the right time, because it was fun to read. Two sisters buy a "B and B," which turns out to mean "Bait and BBQ." They know nothing about fishing or running a restaurant. Having owned a bookstore, I know it isn't this easy to set up a business and have it succeed beautifully. But I enjoyed the happy ending.

In the Bleak Midwinter ~ by Julia Spencer-Fleming, 2002, mystery (New York), 10/10

I rarely read mysteries and got this because the protagonist is a clergywoman — an Episcopal priest. Yup, she also helps the local lawman solve a case. Both of them are former Army, and she flew helicopters. She's also a Southerner, like me, and managed to get stuck in two inches of snow, which I mentioned in my review. Because this author kept me reading nonstop through this one, I plan to read more of her books.

MEMOIR

Here If You Need Me: A True Story ~ by Kate Braestrup, 2007, memoir (Maine), 10/10

This protagonist became a clergywoman after the death of her husband, though she didn't serve as pastor of a church, as I did. Rather, she served as chaplain for search-and-rescue missions in the Maine woods, giving comfort to people whose loved ones are missing. I am a little bit knowledgeable about search-and-rescue work because I read a book Wendy recommended in 2007, when I was a new blogger: Place Last Seen by Charlotte McGuinn Freeman, 2000, fiction (California), which I rated 9 of 10.

YOUNG ADULT

If I Stay ~ by Gayle Forman, 2009, YA fiction (Oregon), 10/10

This novel is about 17-year-old Mia, a talented cellist, who has been in a terrible auto accident. She lost family members, and life will never be same again. If she decides to stay. Although she's unconscious, she is aware of the people around her — nurses, grandparent, boyfriend. And the whole book is about her decision. What will she do? What would you do, if you were in her place? Having played bassoon in my high school's concert band and orchestra, I liked that the book centers around music.

The Invention of Hugo Cabret ~ by Brian Selznick, 2007, YA fiction (France), 10/10

This book is like a "verbal video," starting with being told to "picture yourself sitting in the darkness, like the beginning of a movie. On screen, the sun will soon rise, and you will find yourself zooming toward a train station in the middle of the city." That city is Paris, and Hugo lives in the train station. I enjoyed the drawings from the book, several of which I included in my review. It's an imaginative book that makes the reader open her mind and "see."

Off to Class: Incredible and Unusual Schools Around the World ~ by Susan Hughes, 2011, essays for middle grades, 10/10

There’s a whole world of unusual schools: schools on boats, in a cave, on train platforms, on buses, and even in a treehouse. My friend Donna taught for twenty-plus years, mostly middle school English, and has an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction, so I got her to read this too. I was impressed by the innovative ideas, like curved hallways for blind students, rather that the long, straight halls of most schools. Donna liked the way the book was organized, with activities that could be used, and yet it wasn't "dumbed down" for middle school readers.

Runaway Twin ~ by Peg Kehret, 2009, YA fiction, 10/10

The only time I mentioned this book, I just discovered, was in the comments on a library loot post about two books about twins. Tongue in cheek, Sean said, "I sense there's a theme you are hinting at with your choices." Yes, I learned about the two library books at the same time and put both on reserve. Then I discovered — on my own dining table — that my roommate had a copy of this book. My daughters are identical twins, so I always notice books and articles about twins. A 13-year-old travels from Nebraska to Washington state to find the twin sister from whom she was separated at age three. It's the best of the twin books I read in November.

Turtle in Paradise ~ by Jennifer L. Holm, 2010, YA fiction (Florida), 10/10

One of my blogger friends, one I've actually met, was in Key West when I came across this book, which is set in Key West. There's probably little or nothing the same as what my friend experienced there, since the book takes place in 1935, but I did recommend it to her. It's a 2011 Newbery book, filled with adventures of the 11-year-old kind, including a search for pirate treasure and the hurricane of 1935.

CHILDREN'S

Epaminondas and His Auntie ~ by Sara Cone Bryant, 1907, children's, 10/10

This book has been challenged as racist because it depicts a black child as “completely idiotic and stupid.” Epaminondas is neither stupid nor an idiot. He is struggling to do the right thing, just as I did, when I was a child. If the adults had been careful of their language, which the poor kid took literally, the outcome would have been different — though we wouldn't have much of a story here. This book is like Aesops Fables, something that makes us think.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! : Voices from a Medieval Village ~ by Laura Amy Schlitz, 2007, children's (England), 10/10

This one reminds me of one of my all-time favorite children's books: Cathedral by David Macauley, 1973, showing step by step how a cathedral was built. Laura Amy Schlitz shows us the makeup of a medieval village, looking closely at the various activities of young and old, merchants and craftsmen. I had a little trouble finding all the tiny people, but the book kept my attention and taught me a lot about medieval times.

It's a Book ~ by Lane Smith, 2010, children's, 10/10

Although I read this picture book in a few minutes, I didn't return it to the library for several days. Donna, my roommate, fell in love with it and wanted to show it to several friends. She plans to buy herself a copy. Yes, she's that in love with the book. I'd have gotten her a copy for Christmas, but I was afraid it wouldn't arrive in time. The jackass can't relate to anything but his laptop, no matter how many times the monkey and the mouse say, "It's a book." It doesn't need a password, it doesn't toot its horn, and it doesn't have to be recharged. It's a book!

My Cat, the Silliest Cat in the World ~ by Gilles Bachelet, 2004, children's, 10/10

The guy has a cat, but it isn't a cat at all — it's a big gray thing with a trunk. Aw, c'mon! You know what it is. An elephant, see? The guy paints his "cat" in all sorts of art styles, having it do cat kinds of things: eat, sleep, chase a ball of yarn. Children will have fun thinking they are smarter than that artist who can't tell a cat from an elephant. And a very agile elephant it is, too.

Old Turtle and the Broken Truth ~ by Douglas Wood, illustrated by Jon J Muth, 2003, children's, 10/10

This is the sequel to Douglas Wood's bestselling fable of ecology and spirituality called Old Turtle. I like this one even more that the first. The whole earth is full of suffering and war until one little girl seeks Old Turtle, who tells her about a "broken truth" and how mending it will help her community to understand the common bond of all humanity. The partial truth the people had was that YOU ARE LOVED. But the missing part has the possibility of bringing people together. What's missing? ... AND SO ARE THEY.

You Can't Take a Balloon Into the National Gallery ~ by Jacqueline Preiss Weitzman, illustrated by Robin Glasser, 2000, children's (Washington, DC), 10/10

A girl arrives with her brother and grandmother at the National Gallery with an orange balloon. She knows she can't take it inside, so she finds someone to take care of her balloon until she returns. In side-by-side pictures we see the balloon's adventures, which parallel what the children are inside. Of course, the balloon floated away. And of course, it ends happily. The sisters who dreamed up this book together did a great job.

POETRY

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children ~ by Caroline Kennedy, illustrated by Jon J Muth, 2005, poetry, 10/10

I like the combination of wonderful poems and paintings, which means this book can be enjoyed by adults as much as children. And I like what Caroline wrote in the Introduction: "In our family, we were encouraged to write or choose a favorite poem for each holiday or birthday as a gift for my mother and grandparents instead of buying a card or present. My brother and I would copy over and illustrate our choices, and my mother pasted them in a special scrapbook. When I look through that poetry scrapbook today, it reminds me of our last-minute races to find the best poem, and it evokes who we were as well as if it were a photo album."

As I looked over this list, I decided to choose the best of the best. In other words, my favorite of all the books I've read this year. Since I had already lined up the five categories and alphabetized the titles within each category, it is a total coincidence that my favorite happens to be at the top of the list.

Booking Through Thursday (BTT) asked (on Thursday, the day after I posted this):

What were your favorite books of 2011?

Funny you should ask. See above for my BTT (#17)

The Silent Boy ~ by Lois Lowry

2011-12-26T23:26:00.001-05:00

The Silent Boy ~ by Lois Lowry, 2003, YA fiction, 9/10

Because Jacob can communicate with animals, Katy thinks of him as someone special, even though the townspeople say he's touched. He doesn't speak, but he isn't a deaf-mute. He has a special affinity to the animals, and young Katy likes him. When she is an old lady, she needs to tell Jacob's story, even if others don't want to hear it.

Katy and her father, the doctor, have a discussion about the "irrational" things people do to make themselves feel protected (p. 134). For Jacob, it was that hat he wears and never want to remove. I think it's sort of like Linus's blanket or the pacifier a baby doesn't want to give up. Jacob's hat helps him feel safe.

Katy has always wanted to be a doctor, like her father. Though he tells her that not many women go to medical school, Katy is undeterred (p. 119):

Father had already explained to me that not many women became doctors, and those who did might have a hard time of it. He had known a girl in medical school, he said, and the other students — even Father, though he was ashamed of it now — had played some cruel tricks on her, to see whether she had the stuff for medicine. And she did. She ignored their pranks and became a doctor. But she never married, Father said, and never had children, which was a loss, he felt, to a woman.

I decided I could do it all, and would. I would go to college. Then I would become a doctor and I would marry Austin Bishop and have children one day, and maybe would travel, too. I thought I might go to Africa and China and all the places we studied in school.

I like Katy, the protagonist — she's the main character, though she tells the story of Jacob. She's a spunky girl, who sees the world clearly. She notices things, which helps the reader understand even more than the little girl telling us what she sees and hears around her. I rate the book 9 of 10.

Celebrating at my house ~ with books, of course

2011-12-25T22:25:00.004-05:00

Jaxon, my 1-year-old great-grandson, with his grandpa (my son) holding him and First 100 Animals, a board book. Jaxon kissed that big tiger picture.

Raegan, my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, reading Blackboard Bear by Martha Alexander.

My daughter Barbara, on the right, with her three children: Chase, Cady, and Cali. Barbara is holding her copy of the family stories book I gave my children.

My daughter Sandra, trying to figure out why I gave her an old pink doll blanket. Ask me, and I'll tell you the reason. Her husband, Pat, managed to stay out of all my photos. Behind her are her granddaughter Raegan, her son-in-law Michael (whose head seems to be missing), and her twin sister Barbara.

My grandson Jamey with his other grandmother (Patti) and his girlfriend, Amanda.

My granddaughter Kenzie, mother of Raegan. Kenzie's husband, Michael, didn't get in any of my photos that turned out.

Jaxon, with his parents Whitney and Kendall, David, and my brother Jim behind them. Jim's wife, Carol, avoided being in any of my photos.

My granddaughters Cady and Brandy, with Sharon, my favorite (and only) daughter-in-law. I am blessed.

My son-in-law Greg, who is Cady's daddy.

Raegan, playing the piano for us, one note at a time.

David, wearing Jaxon's Cookie Monster backpack on one shoulder.

Our salon discussion today takes place here, in my living room. Although temps have dropped below freezing a few times, it hasn't really been cool enough to light a fire, which is why I could line gifts up on the hearth in front of the fireplace before the family arrived. Hey, Bookfool, that carefully assembled pile of books in the corner is the book tree that never reached the heights I imagined for it. At the rate it was NOT tapering in, it would have had to reach the ceiling before it looked like a pointed fir, so I simply topped it with a steepled church (which has a light inside to show stained glass windows) and put the lights around it. The red thing? That's a wide ribbon hanging from the mistletoe on the ceiling fan.

More Sunday Salon posts can be found on Facebook.

Christmas Eve story ~ about my baby brother

2011-12-24T00:24:00.021-05:00

Here's the story I promised to tell you on Christmas Eve about my favorite holiday tradition. It's about my baby brother, who is nine years younger than I am. This story takes place in 1964, the first Christmas after our dad died in traffic. In other words, it was the first Christmas without Daddy. Jim was 15 and facing a difficult Christmas morning alone at home with Mom, so we invited him to our house, where he could take part in our family tradition of letting a child fill the family's stockings when they had learned about Santa. Jim, of course, was long past the usual age, but as the last child, he had never gotten to fill anyone's stocking.

Jim, who was in sixth grade when the girls were born, enjoyed being an uncle. Our twin daughters were four that year, and our son was only a year old. After the little ones were in bed, Jim had great fun stuffing their three stockings plus one for himself that we provided: small toys, apples, oranges, nuts, more little toys. But the real fun came the next morning.

He ooh'd and aah-d over every item the children took out of their Christmas stockings, enjoying their happy faces and the squealing. Then the twins realized he hadn't pulled anything out of his stocking.

"Do it, Uncle Jim!" they chorused. And he did.

He ooh'd over the little items he'd put in his own stocking the night before. He was appropriately "surprised" by all the small items "Santa" had brought him. He was hamming it up in his new role as an actor. I had the camera ready as he reached the bottom of his stocking, and his hand closed over something he didn't recognize. The look of surprise on his face was perfect when he pulled out the nice watch he had been wanting.

Getting to play Santa is such fun!

There's more.

Jim, shown here with one of his grandchildren, is now 62 years old and looks a lot more like the "real" Santa Claus. This summer, after my laptop was stolen, Jim and his wife Carol took me shopping for a new one. They and my other brother, Bill, bought me the laptop I'm using right now to type this Christmas story. Jim's still acting a lot like Santa, if you ask me. (I love you, little brother.)

Beginning ~ with an old woman

2011-12-23T00:23:00.005-05:00

The Silent Boy ~ by Lois Lowry, 2003, YA fiction

I am a very old woman now. My great-grandchildren — who call me Docky, a name my youngest patients gave me years ago — ask me to tell them stories, and I make up tales about talking pigs with pink hair ribbons on their curly tails, or monkeys who wear vests and carry canes. I am as good at foolishness as I once was in the operating room.

If I tried to tell them this story, the one I am about to set down here, their parents would send me warning looks over the heads of the children. Don't, the looks would say. Stop.

Even as a child, Katy Thatcher knew that she too wanted to be a doctor. Because Jacob can communicate with animals, Katy thinks of him as someone special, even though the townspeople think he's an imbecile. But the key words on the back cover that make me want to read the book are these:

He meant to help, not harm. It didn't turn out that way.

Lois Lowry is a fantastic writer. I've read both of her YA novels (young adult fiction) that have been awarded the Newbery Medal: Number the Stars and The Giver. I look forward to hearing the story Katy will tell us in this book — about Jacob.

Would the first few lines of your book make you want to read on? To share the first lines of a book you are reading, click on the link and visit Katy at A Few More Pages (today's participants). Browse there to find interesting books for your own reading list. And don’t forget that Katy and all the contributors to this meme — including me — love comments.

Holiday cards

2011-12-22T12:22:00.003-05:00

Since I can't hang these with the other cards I've received, I decided to hang them here, to share with all of you. I may add more later, as they arrive. Be sure to turn on your sound so you can listen to some of these.

From Maggie B: Christmas reindeer music

From Carla C: Woodland creatures build a snowman

From Jane Y: Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
played on a glass harp

From Beth Kephart, to her readers: Holiday wishes

From June D: Merry Christmas eCard

From Colleen R, to her readers: Interactive Christmas card

May your holidays be as delightful as these special greetings.

Gluten-free

2011-12-22T00:22:00.032-05:00

On the 24th, I'm having open house for my family — my children and their spouses, grandchildren and two spouses and two children, plus at least one grandson's girlfriend. One of my grandkids can't have anything with gluten in it, and I've had a major learning curve this week, shopping with his mother to know what ingredients are safe and how dangerous a tiny bit of the wrong thing can be. She brought along a double-sided, small-print list of what to avoid and a thick paperback book for looking up brand-name items that are safe. What I have at home may or may not be okay (food coloring or "additional" unnamed things can be a problem). I bought these items so he too can have something salty and something sweet:

SALTY

Corn chips (nothing made of wheat)
Roasted garlic crackers marked "Gluten Free"
Tostitos salsa con queso dip (okay, per the book)
Lay's french onion dip (okay, per the book)

SWEET (fudge wreath, Rachael Ray's recipe)

Photo by Michael Piazza
Land O Lakes unsalted butter (which I forgot to take out of the fridge for this photo)
Nestle's semisweet chocolate chip (okay, per the book)
Nestle's premier white morsels (substituted, because butterscotch chips didn't pass the test)
Publix sweetened condensed milk (okay, per the book)
McCormick pure vanilla extract (passed the test)
Walnuts (they're okay, no gluten)
Raisins (they're okay, no gluten)
Maraschino cherries (red ones are okay, but not the green ones)

Additional instructions from my daughter:

Don't use wooden spoons, which may have gluten from being used before.
Use metal spoons.
Use a well-cleaned metal pan.

It's complicated, but I love him and want him to enjoy the visit along with the rest of us.

Buddha and squirrel

2011-12-21T23:00:00.001-05:00

Buddha,

I want to have your peace,

your wisdom,

your serenity,

your acorn hat!

Love,

Squirrel

It's a book, Jackass

2011-12-20T00:20:00.007-05:00

It's a Book ~ by Lane Smith, 2010, children's, 10/10

Online summary: "Playful and lighthearted with a subversive twist that is signature Lane Smith, It's a Book is a delightful manifesto on behalf of print in the digital age. This satisfying, perfectly executed picture book has something to say to readers of all stripes and all ages."

Lest you think I'm using bad language in the title line above, let me explain that Jackass is one of the characters. Yes, truly! The title page shows the three characters and names them:

It's a mouse.
It's a jackass.
It's a monkey.

And in big, bold letters:

It's a Book

Mouse and Monkey keep telling Jackass, "It's a book." But he simply doesn't get it. He can only relate to his laptop. Click to enlarge the illustrated pages above to see for yourself. The following pages say:

Jackass: "Don't worry, I'll charge it up when I'm done!"
Mouse (on Monkey's head): You don't have to..."

And the final page has Mouse saying (SPOILER alert):

"It's a book, Jackass."

When I checked this book out yesterday, the librarian said this book was a hot item last year. I have a grown-up friend who wants to buy herself a copy of it. It's such fun! It reminds me of the video of the first recorded IT specialist at work that I posted a couple of weeks ago. Before I go read it through again, I'll tell you I rated the book 10 of 10.

Added at 9:45 a.m. ~ My friend Donna found this video book trailer online, and it does NOT say that last word! It's only a minute long, so go ahead — watch it.

Anticipating Christmas

2011-12-19T22:19:00.010-05:00

Raegan. my 2-year-old great-granddaughter, is pointing out to Gigi Bonnie (I'm behind the camera) which ornaments on Nanny's tree she likes best. The first one she picked honors her great-grandpa Clyde, who died in June.

If you click on this photo, you'll see Jaxon's eyes are red because he started crying when his beloved Grandpa handed him over to his mother. My great-grandson is a year old, and he wanted Grandpa, now! It worked, didn't it?

Raegan got two folks to read to her tonight: her Gigi Bonnie and her grandpa.

Just before I left, she had this conversation with her daddy:

Raegan: "Bye, I'm going to the office."
Daddy: "What are you going to do at the office?"
Raegan: "Do stuff and then go get a purse."
Daddy: "Oh, so you are going to go to the office, do stuff, get money, and go get a purse."
Raegan: "No, Daddy, I get your money and get a purse!!!"
Daddy: "And so it begins."

Here's what one of the three houses looked like, when I visited with all three of my children and some of my grandchildren this evening.

And for now, at least, something interesting happens if you type the words "let it snow" into Google. Go ahead, try it!

Getting to know you ~ Sunday Salon

2011-12-18T00:18:00.004-05:00

Let's sit around this cozy fireplace and chat, shall we? There's popcorn beside the chair, and you're welcome to the soft drinks in the fridge.

This week, I have an agenda. You ask questions, and I'll try to answer them — right here, today, in the comments following this post. I got this idea from Sheila @ Book Journey, who took it from Jill @ Fizzy Thoughts, who told Sheila, "I stole this from other people, so you’re continuing a fine tradition." Sheila's and Jill's readers had a variety of questions:

"Have you always lived in Minnesota?"

"How many hours do you read in a day?"

"Were you a cheerleader in high school?"

"Do you schedule posts in advance?"

"So what are you wearing on your feet?"

"What book would you want to receive for Christmas this year?"

"What do you think is the most important thing to living a good life?"

"What's your favorite triangular-shaped kind of dessert?"

I have a question for you, as well:

"What wonderful book would you recommend I read in the coming year?"

Saturday Snapshot ~ mother of grandparents

2011-12-17T09:00:00.003-05:00

It's still hard to imagine my children are grandparents. My daughter's daughter has a daughter, and my son's son has a son. Here are those two (of my three) with their grandchildren. Jaxon, who was wearing that plastic fire hat earlier, has put it on his Grandpa's head. See him looking at it?

And here's Raegan, hugging her Nanny. I got a good profile photo of her here, looking like she's on the verge of another giggle. She looks straight at somebody and starts a loud "HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!" And that makes all of us laugh along with her. She had the whole firehall laughing at Jaxon's first birthday party.

This meme is hosted by Alyce @ At Home With Books.
Links to today's photos are here.

Friday Five ~ to-do lists

2011-12-16T12:16:00.001-05:00

Earlier this week, I found the book tree on the left, which Helen @ Helen's Book Blog also posted this morning. Then Wednesday, Sheila @ Book Journey posted the book tree on the right, made by the husband of a book club member.

Then Nancy @ Bookfoolery and Babble showed us the "Top Ten Ways for Cat Owners to Get into the Christmas Spirit" (this is Nancy's copyrighted photo of Izzy in their tree).

Then my artist friend Jane sent an email saying:

"Your Christmas tree up yet? Mine is!!!!!!! Highly unusual for me to be this organized. Has the world tilted on its axis? Something must have happened for me to be ahead of my usual lateness. If you're out running around drop by. I should be home part of the day at least!"

This is my way of getting to the point, that I do not yet have a tree up. And today Jan @ RevGalBlogPals chose "to-do lists" as our Friday Five subject.

No matter how organized you are, there must be some things you still need to do. For this Friday Five, tell us five things on your Christmas "To Do" List. Include anything you have decided to skip doing this year. As a bonus, give us something that helps you remember why this season even exists.

Only five? I hadn't planned on having my whole family here, since we were getting together at the home of one of my daughters. But plans have a way of changing, don't they? To allow them to come as they are able, I'm having an open house on Christmas Eve. And I'm not ready!

1. Since we have two cats, we don't want a real tree. Therefore, the first thing on my list is make a book tree, using the two above as inspiration.

2. Take all the boxes still in the dining room to storage so we'll have room for people in our apartment.

3. Vacuum, dust, polish furniture, make the faucets shine, etc.

4. Make or buy snack foods.

5. Wrap gifts, which was all I thought I was going to need to do.

What's still on YOUR to-do list?

Beginning ~ with old-fashioned candy

2011-12-16T00:16:00.058-05:00

Turtle in Paradise ~ by Jennifer L. Holm, 2010, YA fiction (Florida), 10/10

Everyone thinks children are sweet as Necco Wafers, but I've lived long enough to know the truth: kids are rotten. The onlly difference between grown-ups and kids is that grown-ups go to jail for murder. Kids get away with it.

I've already written a review of this book about kids in Key West in 1935, but I want to show how the author bracketed the story by letting Turtle (the main character) repeat at the end what she had said at the beginning. Here are the last lines of the book (page 177, not a spoiler):

I've lived long enough to learn the truth: not all kids are rotten, and there are grown-ups who are sweet as Necco Wafers. And if you're lucky — lucky as an orphan — some of them may even end up being your family.

She learned, she grew, she changed — notice the words "lived long enough to know" in the first excerpt and "lived long enough to learn" in the last one. What you think you know isn't always right. And we get a healthy dose of culture from 1935, like Little Orphan Annie (shown here with Sandy) and Shirley Temple. This is a great little book that I think adults can enjoy as much as kids. That's why I rated it 10 of 10.

If you want to play along, this meme is hosted by Katy at A Few More Pages. Share the first sentence or two of the book you are reading. (Sometimes it takes several sentences to get the full thought.) Then, share your impressions of that beginning. Click this link to see what others say about the books they are reading this week.

Celebrating our elderly relatives

2011-12-15T14:30:00.007-05:00

1. What's your favorite holiday song?

"Silver Bells"

City sidewalks, busy sidewalks
Dressed in holiday style
In the air there's a feeling of Christmas
Children laughing, people passing
Meeting smile after smile
And on every street corner you'll hear

Silver bells, silver bells
It's Christmas time in the city
Ring-a-ling, hear them ring
Soon it will be Christmas day

2. What's your favorite holiday tradition?

Whichever child had learned during the year about the Santa tradition got to fill stockings that year. We did it when I was a child, when my children were growing up, and once more — when my "baby" brother, who had no younger siblings, spent Christmas eve at my house and filled the stockings for our three children. I'll tell you "the rest of the story" on Christmas Eve. Mark your calendar to return to my blog for that special story.

3. If you could travel one place with an elderly family member where would you go?

My first thought was to "go back in time," because I'd like to be with the ones who were my elders. Just yesterday I realized that, as the oldest child, I am now the oldest member of my birth family. Our parents and their generation are all gone. The "elderly family members" in my family are all younger than I am. Okay, I'll pick one of them — my mother's mother, Inez, who died when I was only three. Yes, I do remember her, but only as a sick person whose bedside table was filled with pill bottles. I'd go with her to our old family home in Chattanooga.

4. What questions would you ask?

I would ask my Grandmother Inez to "tell me what it was like when you were growing up." Her mother died when she was six, but I want to know about life in the 1880s. I would ask her to tell me about the flowers she planted at the house where my mother — and I myself — grew up. She planned those flowers to bloom almost year round. I especially remember the sweet smell of hyacinths near my sandbox in the backyard and the rock garden near the corner of the house.

5. What is a non-tangible gift have you received from an elderly relative?

Although Grandmother Inez died when I was very little, she left me a gift that came through my mother — by way of a story. One day my mother, then about twelve, was helping serve refreshments to the ladies of the church, meeting at their house. The women started complaining about the new preacher, and my grandmother clapped her hands loudly (greatly embarrassing my mother) and said something like, "Now ladies, we're going to have him for a year, so we might as well get used to it." (Methodist ministers are appointed for a year at a time.) The women began finding good things to say about him. Mother and I both learned from her mother that one person can make a difference.

6. What is the best/worst/strangest gift you've received from an elderly relative?

My other grandmother, Gladys, gave me a Bible when I was four. In the notes at the back, she X'd out one section about the coming of the Kingdom of God. She believed the church (her church) was the kingdom.

NOTE: This is a meme dreamed up by Tricia Goyer, to advertise her latest book: Remembering You. It's a story about a girl and her grandpa, so she wants "to give a shout-out to our elderly relatives this holiday." Hmm, I am one of the elderly relatives. I tag all of you to answer these questions and add your name to the linky on Tricia Goyer's blog. You'll have a chance to win one of the ten 4-book prize packs on December 22. You can have the four books sent to yourself or to a friend.

Bonnie's request: If you do this meme, please come back and tell me so I can come read your answers.

BTT (#16) ~ character or plot?

2011-12-15T10:00:00.001-05:00

Booking Through Thursday (BTT) asks: "What’s more important to you? Real, three-dimensional, fleshed-out fascinating characters? Or an amazing, page-turning plot? (Yes, I know, they are both important. But if you had to pick one as being more important than the other?)"

A plot is important, but if the story doesn't have characters I care about, I put it down. Like the book I threw across the room last night. Yes, I really did that. I won't mention the title, not even as a DNF book ("Did Not Finish" book), because it doesn't deserve the attention. The main character was not likeable — she was actually very annoying — and she was beginning to use language for the shock value, since repeatedly describing something as f***ing was unnecessary. Fascinating characters are the key for me.

Library Loot ~ December 14-20

2011-12-14T00:14:00.009-05:00

Turtle in Paradise ~ by Jennifer L. Holm, 2010, YA fiction (Florida), 10/10

Life isn't like the movies, and eleven-year-old Turtle is no Shirley Temple. She's smart and tough and has seen enough of the world not to expect a Hollywood ending. After all, it's 1935, and jobs and money and sometimes even dreams are scarce. So when Turtle's mama gets a job housekeeping for a lady who doesn't like kids, Turtle says goodbye without a tear and heads off to Key West, Florida, to stay with relatives she's never met. This is a 2011 Newbery Honor Book.

I've already read this one, the same day I brought it home. It has a boy who thinks literally, like Epaminondas and me.

Turtle: "Mama's head is so high in the clouds, I'm surprised she doesn't bump into Amelia Earhart."
"How can your mama's head be up in the clouds?" Buddy asks. "Ain't it attached to her neck?"

Turtle is a spunky little girl, and I really liked her. I rate it 10 of 10, because I couldn't put it down.

Around the Campfire ~ by Peter, Paul, and Mary, 1998, music (2 CDs), plus a book of sheet music, 9/10

Disc 1: This land is your land — Garden song — Kisses sweeter than wine — It's raining — Somos el barco — If I had a hammer — River of Jordan — Light one candle — Where have all the flowers gone — Inside — The marvelous toy — Right field — Disc 2: Kumbaya — Michael row your boat ashore — Down by the riverside — Puff the magic dragon — 500 miles — Stewball — Blowin' in the wind — We shall overcome — All my trials — Weave me the sunshine — Day is done — Leaving on a jet plane — Goodnight, Irene.

I listened to this one while studying (and reading) the words and the music in the book, so I'm counting it as another book read. I enjoy sing-a-long songs, especially "Puff, the Magic Dragon" which I sang with my children when they were young. I rate this one 9 of 10.

Library Loot is a weekly meme co-hosted by Claire from The Captive Reader and Marg from The Adventures of an Intrepid Reader that encourages bloggers to share the books they’ve checked out from the library. If you would like to share a list of the loot your brought home from the library, Marg has the Mister Linky this week.

Birthday boy ~ Jaxon is one year old

2011-12-13T01:23:00.004-05:00

Although his party was Saturday, today is Jaxon's actual birthday. I watched him walking on his own that day, usually toward his granddaddy, the one who is my son. That pleased me, of course. Jaxon is a contented little fellow, not clingy like some, but showing definite preferences. Happy birthday, little one!

Obama caught reading ~ 2008

2011-12-12T21:06:00.000-05:00

Barack Obama's 2008 campaign reading list included Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, seen here.

Shelf actualized ~ Sunday Salon

2011-12-11T00:11:00.139-05:00

Having found this set of bookshelf letters on Cipriano's blog, along with the idea of being shelf-actualized, I had to share them with you. I wouldn't know how to shelve my books inside those letters.

"You'll find it in the curve of the D," I'd say. Or perhaps: "I think that book is on the cross-bar of the A."

On the right are two sets of my shelving units, six shelves high. At Friday's party, Donna and I met another woman who used to own a bookstore (I didn't get a photo of her), who talked about having "a couple of bookshelves" of books. I was astounded, as I have six shelving units like these in my bedroom alone. How many bookshelves do you have at your house?

Two other women at the party also discussed books with me. One asked if I have a Kindle, as she would be able to share her copy of a book with me. The woman sitting at her table has a Nook, but I have neither, having chosen (so far) to read my books the old-fashioned way. What do you folks think about e-readers and e-books?

Family

We celebrated Jaxon's first birthday Saturday, at the firehall. His daddy, who is my grandson, is a fireman. His grandfather on his mother's side of the family is the fire chief, so lots of connection to this firehall.

Children got to ride in the fire truck, shown returning after one of the trips around the neighborhood. Sirens were heard, but only in the area around the firehall itself. The children came back all excited and another group would climb aboard. Here are four generations, though not all of us who were present are in this picture.

Left to right are my daughter holding her granddaughter Raegan, me standing, my son holding his grandson Jaxon, my son's wife, and their son looking at his "big" boy. The blonde back by the Coke machine is Jaxon's mother. Jaxon kept reaching for his granddad, and my son always seems happy to hold him. The children (and some of us childish adults) wore red plastic fireman's hats.

Two more of my grandchildren: Kenzie and Cali. Kenzie is Raegan's mommy. I'm reading a book about twins this weekend, reminding me that these cousins are actually half-sisters, because their mothers (my daughters) are identical twins. I have an interesting family.

This evening, I attended Cady's dance recital and went out to eat with the family afterwards. Wearing her stage makeup, Cady looks older than her eleven years. It was a busy day!

More Sunday Salon posts can be found on Facebook.

Saturday Snapshot ~ holiday party

2011-12-10T00:10:00.007-05:00

I got these "okay" snapshots at last night's holiday party at our apartment complex.

Donna, my roommate

Jackie, our neighbor

Singing all "Twelve Days of Christmas"

Leading us in singing when he got to "five golden rings!"

Remember our luau? Vickie was at this holiday party too, but Kevin had to work. When the community photos are posted, I'll come back and add a link here.

Saturday Snapshot is a meme hosted by Alyce from At Home With Books. To participate, post a photo taken by you (or a friend or family member). Your photo can be old or new, as long as its subject is appropriate for all eyes to see. Check out snapshots others are sharing this week.